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Author: 


Taylor  Society 


Title: 


Frederick  Winslow  Taylor 


Place: 


New  York 


Date: 


[1 920] 


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ORIGINAL  MATERIAL  AS  FILMED  -    EXISTING  BIBLIOGRAPHIC  RECORD 


'230 


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i 


T219 


Taylor  society,  ^ew  York,  ed, 

Frederick  Winslow  Taylor ;  a  memorial  volume,  being 
addresses  delivered  at  the  funeral  of  Frederick  AVinslow 
Taylor,  Cedron,  Indian  Queen  lane,  Germantown,  Phila- 
delphia, Pa.,  March  24,  1915;  at  a  memorial  meeting  held 
under  the  ausjiices  of  the  Society  to  promote  the  science 
of  management  (now  Taylor  society)  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  October  22,  1915;  and 
at  Mr.  Taylor's  home  '*Boxly,''  Chestnut  Hill,  Phila- 
delphia, Pa.,  October  23, 1915.  New  York,  Tavlor  society 
[^1920] 

viii,  108  p.,  4  1.     front,  (port.)     24^"". 

(Continued  on  next  card) 

21-1438 
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230 
T219 


Taylor  society,  New  York,  ed.  Frederick  Winslow 

Taylor...     [^^1920]     (Card  2) 

"Of  this  book  there  has  been  printed  an  edition  of  one  hundred  copies, 
of  which  this  copy  is  no.  1.*' 


l.JTaylor,  Frederick  Winslow,  1856-1915.    2.  Efficiency,  Industrial. 

21-1438 


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Copy  2. 


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FREDERICK  WINSLOW  TAYLOR 


2i  flpemortdl  Volume 


BEING  ADDRESSES  DELIVERED  AT  THE  FU- 
NERAL OF  FREDERICK  WINSLOW  TAYLOR,  CEDRON, 
INDIAN  QUEEN  LANE,  GERMANTOWN,  PHILA- 
DELPHIA, PA.,  MARCH  24,  1915;  AT  A  MEMORIAL 
MEETING  HELD  UNDER  THE  AUSPICES  OF  THE 
SOCIETY  TO  PROMOTE  THE  SCIENCE  OF  MANAGE- 
MENT (NOW  TAYLOR  SOCIETY),  UNIVERSITY  OF 
PENNSYLVANIA,  PHILADELPHIA,  PA.,  OCTOBER  22, 
1915;  AND  AT  MR.  TAYLOR'S  HOME  "  BOXLY," 
CHESTNUT  HILL,  PHILADELPHIA,  PA.,  OCTOBER 
*3>  1915- 


X 


TAYLOR  SOCIETY 

ENGINEERING  SOCIETIES  BUILDING 

29  W.  THIRTY-NINTH  STREET 

NEW  YORK 


INTENTIONAL  SECOND  EXPOSURE 


FRKDKRICK    WINSLOW      TAYLOR 
lS;f)-19I5 


'  ) 


FREDERICK  WINSLOW  TAYLOR 
2i  flpemorial  l^olume 

BEING  ADDRESSES  DELIVERED  AT  THE  FU- 
NERAL OF  FREDERICK  WINSLOW  TAYLOR,  CEDRON, 
INDIAN  QUEEN  LANE,  GERMANTOWN,  PHILA- 
DELPHIA, PA.,  MARCH  24,  1915;  AT  A  MEMORIAL 
MEETING  HELD  UNDER  THE  AUSPICES  OF  THE 
SOCIETY  TO  PROMOTE  THE  SCIENCE  OF  MANAGE- 
MENT (NOW  TAYLOR  SOCIETY),  UNIVERSITY  OF 
PENNSYLVANIA,  PHILADELPHIA,  PA.,  OCTOBER  22, 
1915;  AND  AT  MR.  TAYLOR'S  HOME  "  BOXLY," 
CHESTNUT  HILL,  PHILADELPHIA,  PA.,  OCTOBER 
23,   1915. 


h 


I , 


TAYLOR  SOCIETY 

ENGINEERING  SOCIETIES   BUILDING 

29  W.  THIRTY-NINTH  STREET 

NEW  YORK 


1^ 


^ 


\?s 


COPYRIGHT,    1920 
BY  THE  TAYLOR  SOCIETY 


^>.  ft        ,      /f^i.-^ 


""^^ 


y-  '-^  '^' 


T)a50 


^^f  this  book  there  has  been  printed  an  edition 
^^  of  one  hundred  copies,  of  which  this  copy  is 
No.  7.0.  In  accordaiice  with  the  primary  pur- 
pose of  the  public ation,  fifty  copies  have  been  de- 
posited in  the  principal  public  libraries  and 
libraries  of  engineering  societies  of  the  United 
States  and  of  foreign,  countries. 


■n 


THE     PLIMPTON     PRESS 
NOR  WOOD -MASS  *U*S 'A 


_i L.,  '  irv' 


i 


I 


i 


CONTENTS 

PAGB 

Addresses  at  Mr.  Taylor's  Funeral,  Germantowk, 
Philadelphia,  Pa.,  March  24,  191 5 

James  M.  Dodge,  Philadelphia 3 

Morris  L.  Cooke,  Philadelphia      5 

Addresses  at  Memorial  Meeting,  Philadelphia,  Pa., 
October  22,  191 5 9 

Program  of  Memorial  Meeting  —  Speakers  —  Honor- 
ary Vice-Presidents 10 

Harlow  S.  Person,  President  of  the  Society  to  Pro- 
mote the  Science  of  Management     II 

Rudolph  Blankenburg,  Mayor  of  Philadelphia  .    .       13 

Henri  LeChatelier,  Institute  of  France 16 

(Read  by  Col.  Vignal,  Military  Attache  of  French  Embassy)  ] 

Charles  de  Freminyille,  Paris 25 

(Read  by  Mayor  Blankenburg) 

A.   Wallichs,    Royal    Polytechnic    School,    Aix-la- 

Chapelle 39 

(Read  by  Mayor  Blankenburg) 

J.  J.  Sederholm,  University  of  Helsingfors,  Finland       52 

(Read  by  President  Person) 

Carl  G.  Barth,  Philadelphia 56 

Henry  L.  Gantt,  New  York 61 

Sanford  E.  Thompson  Boston 66 

Louis  D.  Brandeis,  Boston 72 

James  M.  Dodge,  Philadelphia 77 

•  • 
Vll 


Vlll 


CONT  ENTS 


Addresses  at  "Boxly/*  Chestnut  Hill,  Philadelphia 
October  23,  191 5  79 

Admiral    Caspar    F.    Goodrich,    Pomfret,    Conn.      81 

Harold  Van  Du  Zee,  Germantown,  Pa 87 

Letter  from  William  A.  Fannon,  Appleton,  Wis.      98 
Memorial  Resolution   of    the  Society  to  Pro- 
mote   THE   Science   of   Management  to   Mrs. 

Taylor iii 

Benediction  at  Mr.  Taylor's  Grave,  West  Laurel 

Hill  Cemetery,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  October  23,  1915     113 
Rev.  Langdon  C.  Stewardson,  Greenwich,  Conn.     115 


ADDRESSES 


AT  MR.  TAYLOR'S   FUNERAL,  CEDRON,  INDIAN 
QUEEN   LANE,  GERMANTOWN,  PHILA- 
DELPHIA, PA.,  MARCH  24,  1915 


II  •!lgJ".i!-.M«ateaftB 


i 


BY  JAMES  MAPES  DODGE 


FREDERICK  WINSLOW  TAYLOR  was  a 
prophet  with  honor  in  his  own  country  and, 
at  the  same  time,  honored  and  respected  in 
every  civiHzed  country  of  the  globe.  He  was  a 
devoted  husband  and  faithful  friend,  modest  and 
considerate;  he  was  a  remarkable  student,  an  in- 
ventor of  the  first  rank  and  an  engineer  of  resource 
and  keen  perception,  indefatigable  in  his  work  and 
unswerving  in  his  devotion  to  truth.  With  a  re- 
markable combination  of  temperament  and  learn- 
ing he  became  the  bearer  of  a  message  that  is 
destined  to  make  him  recognized  the  world  over 
as  the  emancipator  of  the  worker  and  of  the  em- 
ployer. He  delivered  the  worker  from  the  oppres- 
sive burdens  of  the  old  order  and  gave  him  freedom 
to  win  the  best  for  his  family  and  himself.  He  de- 
livered the  employer  from  the  necessity  of  being  only 
a  task-master  and  gave  him  the  opportunity  to  be  the 
friend  and  co-worker  of  those  associated  with  him. 

Through  his  scientific  investigations  of  the  rela- 
tions between  employer  and  employee  he  was  able 
to  formulate  a  system  which  made  it  possible  for 
both  parties  to  realize  that  their  interests  instead 
of  being  in  irreconcilable  conflict  were  identical  and 
that  they  were  interdependent,  and  that  all  ques- 
tions between  them  could  be  settled  by  kindness, 
forbearance,  and  patient  investigation  without  resort 


4  FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

to  mistrust,  suspicion,  or  antagonism.  He  was  the 
bearer  of  the  only  flag  of  truce  that  was  ever  carried 
upon  the  battlefield  of  industrial  strife.  Ignorance 
and  prejudice  have  fired  upon  this  flag,  but  it  was 
never  lowered,  and  now  that  the  hand  that  carried 
it  must  relinquish  its  noble  office,  thousands  of 
others  will  sustain  it  in  its  exalted  position,  and  I 
predict  that  it  will  never  be  lowered  and  that  the 
employer  and  the  employee  will  both  prosper  under 
it  as  they  have  never  prospered  before,  and  with 
increasing  respect,  regard,  and  solicitude  for  each 
other's  welfare.  *— ^ 

Many  others  have  prayed  for  an  industrial  social 
millennium,  expecting  it  to  come  from  spiritual 
grace  through  lapse  of  time,  but  Dr.  Taylor  not  only 
saw  the  possibilities  of  the  future,  but  he  did  more: 
he  told  in  detail  exactly  how  this  long-hoped-for 
condition  might  be  actually  accomplished  at  once. 
The  seed  he  has  sown  is  springing  up  in  thousands 
of  places;  the  message  he  gave  us  is  making  hun- 
dreds, yes,  even  thousands  of  converts;  the  work 
he  so  ably  started,  being  based  upon  eternal  truth, 
will  partake  of  the  lasting  characteristics  of  its 
foundation. 


V;T„,TS5»r;»^BKf'j»JJ«*Hi!    llJj^^^ipq^^^F 


mammmM^i^mitkmmmmw, 


BY  MORRIS  LLEWELLYN  COOKE 

SO  much  stress  has  been  put  upon  the  practical 
accomplishments  of  Frederick  W.  Taylor  that 
the  great  reach  and  sweep  of  his  spirit  has, 
except  for  the  few,  been  almost  submerged.  All 
his  lifetime  of  patient,  tireless  investigation;  all 
the  acuteness  of  his  highly  scientific  mind;  all  the 
aspirations  of  a  sensitive  nature,  were  bent  on  the 
one  end  —  of  making  human  life  a  better  thing  to 
live.  To  this  object  he  made  the  freest  possible 
sacrifice  of  his  fortune,  his  time,  and  his  health. 

The  strength  of  the  great  movement  which  Mr. 
Taylor  originated  lay  very  largely  in  the  devotion 
which  we  in  the  ranks  felt  for  our  leader.  We  rarely 
thought  to  call  him  a  great  man  —  it  seemed  like 
such  a  surface  observation  to  anyone  who  ever  saw 
him  at  work.  But  we  were  always  conscious  of  his 
incessant  struggle  —  of  the  long  weary  years  of 
battling  to  make  men  have  faith  in  themselves. 

He  had  a  wonderful  capacity  for  friendliness  —  a 
capacity  that  could  stretch  across  seven  seas,  and 
last  a  lifetime,  and  reach  the  lowest  man  in  the 
ranks.  He  taught  us  our  mutual  dependence  and 
then  proceeded  to  carry  nearly  all  the  load.  He 
tinged  all  our  work  with  ideality.  Hear  his  own 
words,  "I  can  no  longer  afford  to  work  for  money  "; 
"All  our  inventions  and  changes  are  made  to  pro- 
duce human  happiness;"  "In  all  your  relations,  do 


6  FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

to  the  Other  fellow  what  you  would  have  him  do 
to  you."  Just  a  year  ago,  Father  Sertilanges, 
preaching  in  Paris,  said:  "The  love  of  God  is  the 
Taylor  System  of  our  inner  life  (I'amour  de  Dieu  est 
le  systeme  Taylor  de  notre  vie  interieure)."  Mr. 
Taylor  made  us  feel  that  there  is  nothing  we  cannot 
accomplish  —  and  this  without  hurting  our  fellow- 
men. 

Those  of  us  who  are  gathered  here  this  afternoon 
are  only  representative  of  a  large  army  of  men  and 
women  to  whom  the  principles  of  Scientific  Man- 
agement as  practiced  and  taught  by  Mr.  Taylor 
have  made  a  compelling  appeal.     In  every  part  of 
the  world  —in  the  mines  of  Mozambique,  in  far-off 
Japan,  and  among  each  of  the  contending  armies  on 
the    Continent,  and  all  over  this  country  —  were 
those  who  called  him  "Master."    Standing  beside 
the  body  of  our  fallen  leader,  I  wish  I  could  convey 
even  the  slightest  suggestion  of  what  his  inspiration 
has  been  to  his  followers  and  what  a  calamity  has 
come  to  them  — as  to  the  world  — in  his  death.     I 
wish  that  to  you  and  through  you  who  are  here  I 
could  issue  a  call  that  would  seal  the  solidarity  of 
this  movement  for  the  bettering  of  human  relations 
in  business  and  industry,  for  which  Mr.  Taylor  gave 

his  life. 

If  we  could  only  lose  ourselves  as  he  lost  himselt 
in  his  love  of  humanity!  If  we  could  only  have  the 
supreme  confidence  in  the  final  outcome  which  he 
never  lost!  If  we  could  only  care  as  little  as  he 
cared  about  being  numbered  with  the  crowd,  when 
the  crowd  was  wrong!  And  above  all,  if  we  could 
only  act  as  if  we  believed  that  industry  and  national 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR         7 

prosperity  and  life  itself  are  complicated  problems, 
not  to  be  solved  by  any  easy  formulas,  but  worthy 
of  the  closest  scientific  scrutiny,  the  most  patient 
and  untiring  investigations,  the  highest  ideality 
that  the  human  mind  and  spirit  can  bring  to  bear 
upon  them!  This  is  the  glory  of  Frederick  W. 
Taylor's  life  and  this  is  the  heritage  he  leaves  for 
those  who  believed  in  him  —  who  followed  him  — 
who  loved  him»J 

It  was  a  part  of  the  greatness  of  Mr.  Taylor  that 
he  was  not  altogether  concerned  about  the  world's 
understanding  of  the  greatness  of  his  principles  and 
motives.  His  loyal  friends  would  do  well  to  keep 
in  mind  his  own  words:  "Patience,  patience,  and 
then  more  patience."  His  ideas  forged  ahead  pri- 
marily because  they  were  true  and  because  they 
fitted  in  with  the  spirit  of  the  time.  But  Taylor's 
"hanging  on  with  his  teeth,"  as  he  expressed  it, 
and  his  willingness  to  stand  alone  when  he  was 
right,  made  them  prevail. 

Clean  cut  in  his  vision  and  keen  in  his  judgment, 
fearless  of  criticism  or  misunderstanding,  Frederick 
W.  Taylor  rang  true  in  every  act.  He  thought 
straight  and  spoke  his  mind  with  no  uncertain 
sound  and  his  speaking  cleared  the  air  of  sophis- 
tries and  evasions.  No  man  who  was  ever  honored 
by  his  friendship,  sustained  by  his  counsel,  upheld 
by  his  invincible  spirit,  can  ever  willingly  set  him- 
self an  easy  task  or  be  unwilling  to  tread  the 
diflScult  way  —  so  it  be  straight  and  clear. 

Perhaps  it  is  true  that  this  great  pioneer  in  a 
search  for  fundamental  laws  underlying  human  re- 
lations  in   industry  had   to  die   before  the  world 


■-^iwyyi— — — — ■■— iwwi 


riiiiiafiiiifi  i]i\-mMm*mmMiMg*m. 


8     FREDERICK  WINSLOW  TAYLOR 

could  grasp  and  appropriate  the  spiritual  signifi- 
cance of  his  ideas.  But  let  us  never  for  a  moment 
think  of  his  genius  as  resting  from  its  labors.  The 
torch  he  kindled  he  has  passed  on  to  other  hands  to 
carry  forward  in  the  world  of  men.  But  it  is  impos- 
sible not  to  believe  that  already  his  eager  curiosity, 
his  undimmed  mentality,  his  splendid  enthusiasm, 
are  engaged  in  a  new  and  spiritual  adventure,  for 
which  his  training  and  discipline  were  a  fitting  prepa- 
ration. No  more  baffled  by  human  limitations 
within  and  without,  his  passionate  search  for  truth 
given  a  universal  field  and  scope,  his  horizon  bounded 
only  by  the  stars,  Frederick  W.  Taylor  will  always 
lead  us  by  the  inspiration  of  his  continuing  life,  the 
comradeship  of  his  undying  spirit. 

**Bid  him  awake  from  the  dream,  the  probation,  the  prelude, 
to  find  himself  set 
Clear  and  safe  in  new  light  and  new  life  —  a  new  harmony 

yet 
To  be  run^  and  continued,  and  ended  — 

Who  knows?" 


ADDRESSES 

AT  THE  MEMORIAL  MEETING,  HOUSTON  HALL, 

UNIVERSITY  OF   PENNSYLVANIA, 

PHILADELPHIA,  PA., 

OCTOBER  22,  1 91 5 


"^m 


The  Officers  and  Members 

of 

The  Society  to  Promote  the  Science  of  Management 

request  your  presence 
at  a  meeting  to  he  held  in  memory  of 

Frederick  Winslow  Taylor 

on  Friday  evening,  October  twenty-second 
at  eight  o'clock 

Houston  Hall,  University  of  Pennsylvania 

Speakers 


Rudolph  Blankenburg 

Mayor  of  Pbiladelpbia 

Carl  G.  Barth 

Louis  D.  Brandeis 

James  M.  Dodge 


Edgar  Fahs  Smith 
Provost  of  University  of  Penna. 

Henry  L.  Gantt 

Harlow  S.  Person 

Sanford  E.  Thompson 


Honorary  Vice  Presidents 


Clarence  M.  Clark 
Morris  L.  Cooke 
William  Crozier,  U.S.A. 
Edwin  F.  Gay 
C.  F.  Goodrich,  U.S.N. 
H.  K.  Hathaway 
T.  Hoshino 
Toro  Ishiki 


Henri  le  Chatelier 
Wilfred  Lewis 
R.  Poliakoff  . 
Hans  Renold 
Ida  M.  Tarbell 
Sanford  E.  Thompson 
Henry  R.  Towne 
A.  Wallichs 


BY  HARLOW  STAFFORD  PERSON 

Mr.  Provost: 

ON  behalf  of  the  Society  to  Promote  the 
Science  of  Management^  I  thank  you  for 
this  welcome,  and  through  you  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania  for  its  cordial  hospitality. 
It  is  peculiarly  fitting  that  the  Society  should  hold 
this  memorial  meeting  in  this  environment, —  in 
Pennsylvania,  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  under  the 
roof  of  a  great  university.  In  this  state,  because 
within  its  borders  Mr.  Taylor  saw  his  great  problem, 
and  through  nearly  half  a  century  devoted  himself 
to  its  solution.  In  this  city,  because  here  he  later 
made  his  home,  and  here  his  body  rests.  In  this 
city,  furthermore,  because  into  its  records  have 
been  indelibly  written,  that  all  may  read,  the  most 
perfect  application  of  his  philosophy  of  manage- 
ment to  efficient  municipal  administration.  Under 
the  roof  of  a  great  university,  because  in  purpose, 
in  method,  in  temperament,  he  represented  all  for 
which  a  university  stands.  He  was  investigator 
and  seeker  after  truth;  he  was  discoverer  and  for- 
mulator  of  truth;  he  was  jealous  guardian  of  truth; 
he  was  teacher  and  leader  of  men. 

Because  of  the  prejudice  developed  by  their  en- 
vironment, educators  in  estimating  men  like  to  test 

^  [Now   named    Taylor    Society,    in    honor    of   Frederick 
Winslow  Taylor.  —  Ed.] 


a-,  wf^.w  ■  .--■.^j*^  V  -\j"  '--'';r~'irmi^'c: 


12      FREDERICK     WIN  SLOW      TAYLOR 

them  for  these  characteristics.  It  is  a  joy  to  have 
found  them  in  Mr.  Taylor.  That  is  the  source  of 
the  inspiration  which  has  prompted  educators  to 
associate  ourselves  with  this  Society  for  the  purpose 
of  preserving  and  developing  the  principles  dis- 
covered by  him,  and  for  the  purpose  of  convincing 
every  man  of  their  fundamental  soundness  and  value 
to  society.  As  an  investigative  and  educational 
personality  this  Society  is  a  lineal  descendant  of 
Mr.  Taylor,  investigator  and  educator. 

Mr.  Taylor  embodied  the  highest  ideals  of  the 
most  exacting  university,  —  an  unquenchable   pas- 
sion to    learn  the    truth;    an    indefatigable  energy 
and  persistence  in  the  search  for  it;   a  command  of 
the  essential  intellectual  and  physical  apparatus  of 
investigation;   an  imagination  which  penetrated  the 
darkness  ahead;  and  a  modesty  which  forbade  the 
common  sin  of  premature  announcement  of  results. 
It  was  a  quarter  of  a  century  after  Mr.  Taylor 
first  conceived  the  first  principles  of  his  philosophy 
of  management  before  he  announced  them  m  the 
memorable  address  before  the  American  Society  of 
Mechanical  Engineers.     To  some  of  us,  one  of  the 
most  heroic  acts  in  the  history  of  science  was  Charles 
Darwin's  modesty  and  patience  in  long  and  quiet 
investigation  which  preceded  the  announcement  of 
epoch-making  discoveries.     The  story  of  it  thrills 
us.     Likewise  we  are  thrilled  when  we  realize  that 
we  have  been  associated  with  and  now  continue  the 
work  of  a  man  who  has  shown  a  similar  example 
of  supreme  modesty  and  patience. 

Again,  Mr.  Provost,  on  behalf  of  the  Society,  I 
thank  you  and  the  University  for  its  cordial  welcome. 


-7i 


m 


BY   RUDOLPH  BLANKENBURG 
MAYOR   OF    PHILADELPHIA 

THE  greatest  tribute  I  can  perhaps  pay  to 
the  memory  of  Mr.  Taylor  is  to  advise  you 
that  soon  after  my  election  as  Mayor  of 
Philadelphia,  four  years  ago,  I  requested  him  to  call 
upon  me.  He  did  so,  and  at  my  house  we  discussed 
all  phases  of  city  government  and  what  would  best 
serve  the  City  of  Philadelphia  during  the  new 
administration. 

After  fully  discussing  this  important  question,  I 
asked  him  to  make  a  great  sacrifice  for  the  public 
by  accepting  the  position  of  Director  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Public  Works.  He  seemed  pleased,  but  hes- 
itated, stating  that  he  did  not  see  how  he  could  do 
so.  When  I  saw  him  again,  a  day  or  two  later,  he 
said,  *'It  would  be  a  real  pleasure  for  me  to  accept 
your  offer  so  as  to  help  you  in  the  great  work  of 
regenerating  Philadelphia,  but  it  is  impossible  for 
me  to  do  so  on  account  of  my  health.  I  have  really 
more  to  do  now  than  should  be  asked  of  any  man, 
and  it  is  a  physical  impossibility  for  me  to  add  to 
my  work." 

But  Mr.  Taylor  helped  me  after  all.  When  I 
looked  further  for  a  man  to  fill  the  important  posi- 
tion of  Director  of  Public  Works,  Mr.  Taylor  helped 
me  in  the  selection  and  recommended  to  me  one  of 


nmammi 


M 


14       FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

his  disciples.  I  appointed  that  disciple  as  Director, 
and  he  has  made  good  and  is  an  honor  to  the  City 
of  Philadelphia. 

Mr.  Taylor  was  to  me  a  paradox.  On  one  hand 
we  find  his  rugged  intellect  blasting  its  way  up 
through  layer  after  layer  of  conventions  formed  by 
generations  of  prejudice,  tradition,  and  ignorance 
until  he  became  recognized  as  perhaps  the  world's 
foremost  industrial  leader.  When  truth  was  at 
stake,  he  was  resourceful,  robust,  and  tireless.  The 
problem  once  even  dimly  visioned  he  pursued  with 
the  zest  of  a  hunter  until  he  conquered. 

On  the  other  hand,  those  whose  contacts  with 
him  were,  like  my  own,  only  casual  and  who  went 
to  him  as  converts,  rather  than  to  be  converted, 
could  hardly  sense  his  power.  He  was  born  and 
bred  to  a  gentle  manner.  His  sweet  smile  and 
courtly  bearing  were  only  the  surface  indications 
of  an  innate  and  broad-spreading  sympathy  and 
kindliness.  He  knew  he  had  much  to  give  and  he 
gave  it  with  a  generosity  which  knew  no  limits. 
Yet  few  men  of  this  or  any  other  time  had  sensed 
so  clearly  how  much  there  is  to  be  known  and  what 
a  short  way  we  have  gone  on  the  journey. 

We  in  Philadelphia  who  saw  Mr.  Taylor  come 
and  go  among  us  as  our  friend  and  neighbor  only 
dimly  comprehend  —  if  at  all  —  that  the  world  has 
been  listening  to  his  teachings  for  years  as  to  one 
of  the  master  minds  of  his  time.  The  Japanese, 
the  French,  and  those  of  Scandinavian  lands  were 
among  the  peoples  who  have  read  his  books  in  their 
own  tongues  for  years.  The  industrial  scientists  of 
Germany,  Italy,  and   Russia  have  crossed  the  sea 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR        I5 

with  the  beautiful  home  of  Boxly  as  the  end  of  their 

pilgrimage. 

Today  his  fellow-townsmen  are  alive  to  the  sig- 
nificance of  his  mission,  and  an  eagerness  to  ac- 
quaint ourselves  with  his  methods  and  principles 
is  springing  up  in  all  our  hearts.^ 

This  war-torn  world  of  ours  has  indeed  lost  a 
great  leader  at  a  time  when  it  needs  him  most. 
It  would  seem  that  when  the  moment  comes  to 
bind  up  humanity's  wounds,  the  creed  which  Mr. 
Taylor  lived  and  died  to  establish  may  prove  one 
rock  on  which  we  may  build  a  more  lasting  peace. 

The  City  of  Philadelphia  is  indeed  proud  of  his 
genius  and  even  more  proud  of  the  great  service  he 
rendered  to  mankind. 

While  we  may  some  day  erect  monuments  in 
marble  or  bronze  to  his  memory,  Frederick  Winslow 
Taylor  has  erected  for  himself,  in  the  city  of  his 
birth,  an  imperishable  memorial  in  the  great  work 
which  he  has  woven  into  the  fabric  of  our  institutions. 

1  Mayor  Blankenburg  then  read  abstracts  from  papers 
sent  for  the  occasion  by  Mr.  Charles  Freminville  of  Paris, 
France,  and  Professor  A.  Wallichs  of  the  Royal  Polytechnic 
School  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  Germany,  both  of  which  are  printed 
in  full  in  these  proceedings. 


^ 


■■1 


5S 


mtam 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 


17 


1 


\ 
\ 

\ 


HOW  HAVE  I  KNOWN  FREDERICK  W. 
TAYLOR;  WHY  HAVE  I  ENDEAVORED  TO 
POPULARIZE  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT?^ 

_^  BY  HENRI  LE  CHATELIER 

FREDERICK  W.  TAYLOR  is  a  mechanician 
and  I  am  a  chemist:  he  is  an  engineer,  and  I 
am  a  professor.  What  has  brought  us  in 
touch  with  each  other?  How  have  I  been  led  to 
undertake  the  popularizing  of  industrial  methods, 
which  is  quite  outside  of  my  province?  Some  will 
say  it  is  chance,  —  the  veriest  accident.  But,  in 
the  Taylor  System  there  is  no  room  for  change; 
all  facts  are  necessarily  related  to  each  other.  The 
very  object  of  this  system  is  to  disentangle  the  in- 
evitable relations  of  phenomena.  Chance  has  to  do 
only  with  those  relations  of  which  we  are  still  igno- 
rant. The  questions  which  I  raise  here  give  very 
clear  proof  of  the  correctness  of  this  definition  of 
L  chance.  If  the  bringing  together,  across  the  Atlantic 
Ocean,  of  two  scholars  entirely  unknown  to  each  other 
seems  at  first  sight  inexplicable,  the  following  state- 
ment will  demonstrate,  on  the  contrary,  that  it  was 
inevitable  and  that  chance  had  nothing  to  do  with  it. 
I  have  devoted  my  life  to  the  study  of  science, 
and  in  pursuit  of  this  study  I  have  allowed  myself 

*  Read  by  Col.  Vignol,  Military  Attache  of  the  French 
Embassy,  and  special  delegate  to  the  memorial  meeting  by 
appointment  of  the  President  of  France. 


I 

I 


I 


to  be  guided  by  a  few  leading  principles  borrowed 
from  the  philosophical  works  of  Taine.  To  my  mind 
the  end  of  science  is  simply  the  study  of  the  relations 
existing  between  phenomena;  that  is  to  say,  the 
study  of  natural  laws.  Moreover,  a  sound  method 
for  the  study  of  these  laws  consists  in  at  once  direct- 
ing all  one's  efi^orts  toward  the  analysis  of  the  most 
important  factors;  that  is,  of  those  which  play  a  pre- 
ponderant part  in  the  determination  of  a  given  result. 

Being,  moreover,  a  professor  in  a  polytechnic  school, 
I  naturally  had  to  interest  myself  from  the  very 
first  in  the  elements  of  industrial  progress;  in  my 
opinion  science  is  the  dominating  factor  therein.  In 
order  to  develop  the  influence  of  science  in  French 
industry,  and  to  make  our  engineers  understand  the 
beneficial  role  of  scientific  methods  of  work,  I  es- 
tablished La  Revue  de  Metallurgie  about  fifteen 
years  ago.  In  this  publication  I  proposed  to  give 
a  leading  place  to  the  studies  of  industrial  science, 
while  giving  ample  space  to  purely  technical  in- 
formation, which  was  necessary  to  insure  the  read- 
ing of  my  review  by  those  manufacturers  who  are 
often  but  partially  convinced  of  the  practical  value 
of  science. 

Faithful  to  these  principles,  in  editing  this  review 
I  was  obliged  systematically  to  give  a  conspicuous 
place  to  the  dominating  facts,  —  to  allot  the  number 
of  pages  devoted  to  each  industrial  process,  accord- 
ing to  its  real  importance.  At  the  time  of  the  Paris 
Exposition  in  1900,  struck  by  the  evident  impor- 
tance of  high-speed  tool  steel,  I  reviewed  system- 
atically all  the  articles  bearing  on  this  discovery 
in  order  to  give  extracts   from   them  in  La   Revue 


"  *  1 

'111 


l8        FREDERICK      WINSLOW      TAYLOR 

de    Metallurgie.     I    published    among   other   things 
an  extract  from  a  lecture  of  a  Sheffield  engineer, 
Mr.  Gledhill,  attributing  the  discovery  of  high-speed 
tool  steel  to  a  lucky  chance.     A  careless  workman 
had  overheated  one  of  his  tools  and,  far  from  dam- 
aging  it,   he   had   considerably  improved   it.     This 
incident  coming  to  the  knowledge  of  two  industrial 
engineers,    Messrs.    Taylor   and   White,    had   given 
birth    to   high-speed   tool   steel.     Not   believing   in 
chance,  I   had  followed  up  this  article  with  some 
personal  remarks,  saying  that  it  had  certainly  re- 
quired  a   high   order  of  scientific  observation   and 
investigation  on  the  part  of  the  engineers  in  ques- 
tion to  have  been  able  to  draw  such  an  important 
discovery    from    the    carelessness    of    a    workman. 
This  article  fell  under  the  eye  of  Frederick  Taylor. 
Some  months  afterwards  when  he  decided  to  pub- 
lish the  history  of  his  discovery  in  his  celebrated 
presidential    address    to    the    mechanical    engineers, 
"The  Art  of  Cutting  Metals,'*  he  sent  me  a  copy  of 
the  final  proofs,  thanking  me  for  my  words  of  appre- 
ciation.    It   might   interest  me,   he   said,   to   know 
that  chance,  as  I  had  foreseen,  had  had  absolutely 
nothing  to  do  in  the  discovery  of  high-speed  tool 
steel. 

I  then  asked  Mr.  Taylor  to  authorize  my  publish- 
ing a  French  translation  of  his  paper,  which  he  very 
obligingly  granted.  But,  he  added  in  his  letter,  he 
believed  that  he  had  done  something  much  more 
important  than  his  work  on  cutting  metals,  namely, 
his  scientific  management  of  shop  work.  He  asked 
me  to  read  attentively  his  paper  called  '*Shop 
Management''  and  to  give  him  my  criticism  of  it. 


• 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW      TAYLOR        I9 


I  knew  the  work  in  question  very  well  by  name,  but 
I  thought  that  it  treated  simply  of  a  system  of  pay- 
ing wages,  the  differential  system,  more  or  less 
similar  to  Halsley's  system  of  premiums,  which  had 
not  seemed  to  me  sufficiently  interesting  to  make 
me  buy  the  book  and  read  it.  Once  in  possession 
of  this  volume,  I  studied  it  conscientiously  and  I 
was  profoundly  surprised  to  find  in  it  a  very  remark- 
able application  of  the  scientific  method  to  industrial 
problems.  In  undertaking  the  publication  of  La 
Revue  de  Metallurgie,  I  had  proposed  to  generalize 
the  applications  of  science  to  industry,  but  I  had 
not  understood  the  full  extent  of  the  domain  of 
science.  I  had  hardly  dreamed  beyond  the  intro- 
duction of  the  laboratory  and  of  its  experimental 
methods  in  factories,  but  I  had  not  foreseen  the 
possibility  of  extending  the  domain  of  science  over 
all  the  realm  of  industry,  including  questions  of 
organization,  commercial  questions,  labor  questions, 
etc. 

I  was  somewhat  ashamed  to  find  the  science  of  a 
practical  man  infinitely  more  developed  {elevee)  than 
my  own.  From  that  day  on  I  felt  myself  obliged, 
in  order  to  remain  faithful  to  the  program  which  I 
had  from  the  first  mapped  out  for  myself,  to  con- 
stitute myself  an  apostle  of  the  Taylor  System. 
From  the  beginning  I  was  perfectly  aware  of  the 
difficulties  and  of  the  time  which  the  spread  of  the 
new  ideas  would  require.  It  had  already  been  hard 
enough  to  induce  manufacturers  to  make  use  of 
laboratories,  even  when  the  material  results  were 
tangible  and  paid  immediately.  It  would  be  still 
more  difficult  to  make  them  accept  a  more  complex 


11 
1 


;i 


i:i 


if 


r 

I 


20 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW      TAYLOR 


method  of  work,  more  costly  to  put  in  operation  and, 
above  all,  giving  only  more  remote  results.    Calling 
to  mind,  then,  this  other  principle  of  Taine,  that  to 
convince  people  it  is  not  sufficient  to  give  them  good 
reasons,  but  that  above  all  you  must  fire  their  imagi- 
nations by  a  series  of  individual  facts  which  they 
can  easily  digest  and  which  all  lead  to  the  same  end, 
I  made  up  my  mind,  either  in  La  Revue  de  Metal 
lurgie  or  in  other  publications,  to  come  back  in- 
cessantly to  the  advantages  of  Taylor's  Scientific 
Management.    A  nail  is  finally  driven  home  by  the 
constant  repetition  of  little  blows.     It  was  in  this 
way  that  an  active  correspondence  with  Frederick 
Taylor  was   brought   about   and   the   beginning  of 
those   sentiments   of  friendship   arose   which   made 
his  premature  death  particularly  painful  to  me.    We 
shall  endeavor  at  least  to  make  his  ideas  live  and 
to  awaken  the  feeling  of  gratitude  to  which  he  is 
entitled    because    of   the    beneficent   work    he    left 
behind  him. 

After  all,  the  bond  which  inevitably  drew  us  to- 
gether was  the  community  of  our  scientific  interests, 
directed  alike  toward  industrial  progress.  We  have' 
independently  and  without  any  acquaintance,  come 
upon  each  other  from  different  routes  which  led  to 
the  same  end:  we  had  to  meet  sooner  or  later. 
There  was  indeed  no  accident  in  the  origin  of  our 
collaboration. 



Now,  what  has  the  result  been,  as  far  as  France 
is  concerned,  of  the  efforts  made  to  spread  the 
Taylor  System?  It  has  been  nothing,  if  one  judges 
by  appearances.     There  is  not   to  my  knowledge 


s- 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW      TAYLOR       21 

a  single  one  of  our  factories  which  has  been  entirely 
reorganized  by  the  inspiration  of  the  principles  of 
scientific  management.     I  know  only  half  a  dozen 
where    partial    applications    have   been    attempted. 
Among  these,  the  St.  Jacques  Factory  at  Monlucon, 
a  branch  of  the  Company  of  Chatillon,  Commentry 
and  Neuves  House,  is  the  most  remarkable  example 
to  cite.     This  factory  is  directed  by  Mr.  Charpy, 
an  expert,  and  a  correspondent  of  the  Academy  of 
Sciences,  who  had  already  begun  to  introduce  scien- 
tific methods  of  work  in  his  factories  before  he  knew 
of  Frederick  Taylor's  publications,  which  only  en- 
couraged him  to  persevere  in  the  path  in  which  he 
had  been  walking.    On  the  other  hand,  there  has 
certainly  been  brought  about  a  widespread  stimu- 
lation of  ideas  in  the  industrial  world;   I  know  of  it 
by  the  many  letters  that  I  have  received.     More- 
over, it  is  possible  to  give  even  more  direct  proof  of 
this.     The  French  translation  of  the  "Principles  of 
Scientific  Management,"  has  been   printed    in   two 
editions  to  the  number  of  8000  copies,  of  which 
3000  have  been  gratuitously  distributed  and  4000 
sold  —  representing,  then,    at    least    5000    readers. 
To-day  Frederick  Taylor's  ideas  are  familiar  to  the 
majority   of   French  engineers:    whether  they  will 
or  no,  these  necessarily  exercise  an  influence  on  every 
one  of  their  decisions.     But  the  name  of  Taylor  is 
not  spoken  on  that  account,  and  it  hardly  ever  will 
be,  because  his  ideas  can  never  be  applied  in  our 
industry  until  they  have  passed  into  the  spirit  of 
other  engineers  and  have  become  their  very  own. 

The  advice  of  consulting  engineers,  which  is  con- 
sidered so  natural  in  the  United  States,  does  not 


5l  t  . 


l.{ 


! 


jifiiiiiiilli[l1M|MiJJP"i'Biiiir'"^^^^  ■• 


\ 


I    I 


22       FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

obtain  with  us.  To  reorganize  a  factory  you  appeal 
to  one  of  Taylor's  disciples  —  Barth,  Gantt,  Thomp- 
son, etc.,  or  to  one  of  their  imitators.  With  us,  on 
the  contrary,  a  factory  insists  on  reorganizing  itself 
only  with  the  help  of  its  own  staff,  and  on  invoking 
no  name  except  that  of  the  firm.  I  had  warned 
Frederick  Taylor  that  in  France  his  system  would 
take  the  name  of  the  engineers  or  the  firms  which 
would  put  his  ideas  into  practice.  **I  desire  noth- 
ing more,"  said  he;  "so  that  my  ideas  spread,  it 
matters  little  the  dress  under  which  they  cir- 
culate." 

If  French  engineers  have  studied  the  ideas  of 
Frederick  Taylor  with  interest  and  sympathy,  it  has 
not  always  been  so  with  workmen  and  especially 
with  labor  unions.  However,  their  opposition  has 
been  less  active  than  one  would  have  feared  and 
especially  it  has  generally  been  half-hearted.  The' 
greatest  diflSculties  on  the  part  of  workmen  came 
about  because  certain  shops,  in  spite  of  the  explicit 
recommendations  of  Frederick  Taylor,  chose  to 
apply  only  a  few  of  the  principles  of  Scientific 
Management,  selecting  those  which  seemed  to  them 
the  most  advantageous.  ^ 

I  have  had  in  my  own  hands  letters  from  working- 
men  complaining  very  justly  that  they  had  been 
forced  to  increase  the  speed  in  running  their  machine 
tools,  receiving  the  bonus  promised  by  Taylor  — 
but  that  the  precautions  had  been  neglected  which 
were  necessary  to  insure  an  increased  supply  of 
materials  commensurate  with  the  increase  of  the 
production  of  the  machines.  They  were  thus  forced 
to  lie  idle  from  time  to  time,  for  an  hour  or  more. 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR       23 

and  in  spite  of  the  higher  wages  per  hour,  they  did 
not  make  any  more  per  day  than  they  had  before. 

The  statements  about  the  Taylor  System  issued 
by  the  leaders  of  the  labor  unions  have  disagreed 
considerably  —  some  of  them  have  frankly  taken 
the  defensive,  as  has  Founiere,  in  a  series  of  articles 
published  in  the  Depeche  de  Toulouse,     Others  have 
declared  that  the  Taylor  System  was  excellent  in 
itself,  and  that  there  would  be  no  objection  to  it, 
if  the  employers  were  not  brigands  and  did   not 
attempt  to  use  this  method  as  a  weapon  against  the 
workingman.     Finally,  some   of  them,  like    Puget, 
have  shown  themselves  to  be  decidedly  antagonistic 
to  new  methods  of  work,  but,  in  order  to  combat 
them,  they  have  used  arguments  in  absolute  bad 
faith.     For  example,  they  cited  an  alleged  quota- 
tion of  an  English  journalist  named  Frazer,  making 
him  say  in  his  book  ''America  at  Work,"  that  all 
workingmen  working  under  scientific   management 
reached  the  cemetery  before  coming  of  age.     Now 
there  is  nothing  of  the  kind  in  the  volume  in  ques- 
tion.   Frazer  does  not  mention  anywhere  the  scien- 
tific method  of  Mr.  Taylor,  the  existence  of  which  he 
does  not  suspect.    His  invective  is  aimed  at  a  large 
manufacturing   plant   in    Philadelphia   whose   prin- 
ciples of  administration  are  really  the  very  negative 
of  those  of  scientific  management.    In  this  shop  the 
rule  is  to  choose  for  each  operation  the  most  capable 
man,  and  then  to  let  him  do  the  best  he  can,  without 
tying  him  down  to  any  principle  of  management. 
In  France,  the  most  earnest  opponents  of  the  Taylor 
System  are  perhaps  the  economists.    That  may  seem 
surprising,  but  on  second  thought  one  understands 


It 


I 


..\  I 


24 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 


why  scholars  discussing  industrial  questions  which 
are  altogether  out  of  their  province,  without  ever 
having  set  foot  in  a  machine  shop,  must  in  the  nature 
of  things  conform  their  ideas  in  their  criticisms  to 
previous  opinions  and  to  systems  established  by 
long  tradition.  They  do  not  dare  to  launch  out  into 
new  fields  whose  foundations  they  are  not  able 
personally  to  appreciate.  Be  that  as  it  may,  Fred- 
erick Taylor's  ideas  are  making  their  way  little  by 
little.  Machinery  was  forced  upon  industry  in 
spite  of  the  attacks  of  which  it  was  the  object;  it 
will  be  the  same  with  the  scientific  principles  of 
management  of  work.  From  certain  points  of  view 
their  success  would  be  even  easier,  because  ideas 
have  a  far  greater  force  of  penetration  and  of  dif- 
fusion than  material  objects.  One  can  break  up 
machinery,  burn  down  shops,  but  there  is  no  way  of 
coercing  ideas. 


( 


I 

»» 


THE  RESPONSE  OF  FRANCE   TO 
SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

BY  CHARLES  DE  FREMINVILLE 

THE  associates  of  Frederick  Winslow  Taylor, 
gathered  together  to  perpetuate  his  memory, 
have,  in  asking  me  to  present  a  few  remarks 
on  the  work  of  their  master,  conferred  on  me  a  great 
honor,  to  which  I  had  no  right  to  aspire. 

I  shall  endeavor,  however,  to  invoke  the  upright- 
ness, the  energy,  and  the  elevation  of  character  of 
the  eminent  man  who  gave  me  such  a  cordial  wel- 
come. At  the  same  time  I  wish  to  point  out,  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  engineer,  how  Frederick  W. 
Taylor's  ideas  were  presented  in  France;  with  what 
sympathetic  interest  they  were  received;  and  how 
great  a  service  they  are  called  upon  to  render  to  the 
French.  Those  ideas  acquaint  them  at  the  most 
opportune  moment  with  a  method  of  organization 
which  appeals  to  them  more  than  any  other,  because, 
depending,  in  spite  of  what  has  been  said,  on  the 
development  of  the  individual,  it  responds  perfectly 
to  their  own  aspirations. 

When  Frederick  Taylor's  works  ''On  the  Art  of 
Cutting  Metals"  and  ''Shop  Management"  ap- 
peared, they  attracted  the  particular  attention  of  a 
learned  engineer  whose  name  is  universally  recog- 
nized, M.  Henri  le  Chatelier,  because  they  repre- 
sented   the    most    remarkable    application    of   the 


ti 


in 
i' 


V 


*2 


1 


i!i 


26       FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

scientific  method  to  industrial  work,  and  the  finest 
development  of  that  industrial  science  towards 
which  M.  le  Chatelier  himself  was  already  striving 
to  lead  the  way.  Through  his  interest  these  im- 
portant works  were  first  published  by  La  Revue 
de  Metallurgie. 

The  method  used  involved  such  determination 
and  continuity  of  effort,  such  close  cooperation  for 
an  unprecedented  length  of  time,  and  laws  carried 
out  to  such  a  fine  point,  that  it  was  difficult  to  think 
it  was  not  exaggerated. 

But  from  the  moment  I  heard  of  this  great  work 
it  was  easy  for  me  to  recognize  in  it  the  development 
of  those  experiments  in  the  cutting  of  metals  which 
had  been  pointed  out  to  me  at  the  time  of  a  visit  to 
/the  shops  of  William  Sellers  in  1885  and  which  could 
v/'  not  have  been  published  until  a  much  later  date. 
I  was  able  then  to  bear  my  humble  witness  to  the 
work  of  Frederick  Taylor. 

Nevertheless,  when  the  works  of  Frederick  Taylor 
were  published  in  France,  the  name  of  the  great 
engineer  must  have  already  been  known  there,  for 
it  was  that  of  one  of  the  inventors  of  the  high-speed 
"^^.tool  steel  which  had  made  such  a  great  sensation  at 
the  Paris  Exposition  in  1900.  Everyone  knew  then 
that  this  great  discovery  was  the  result  of  the  sci- 
entifically exact  experiments  conducted  right  in  the 
shops  with  remarkable  method  and  perseverance  by 
Frederick  Taylor  and  his  associates.  Such  a  dem- 
onstration could  not  pass  unnoticed.  Not  only  did 
Taylor  reveal  himself  as  an  observer  beyond  the 
ordinary  —  but  he  taught  others  how  to  observe; 
he  showed  the  extent  of  the  field  which  opens  up 


\   P 


»ii«»»*«s 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR       27 

before  trained  observation  and  he  should  be  recog- 
nized, without  argument,  as  the  head  of  a  new  School 
of  Observation. 

"On  the  Art  of  Cutting  Metals"  had  been  pub- 
lished with  "Shop  Management"  by  M.  le  Chate- 
lier. The  volume  passed  from  hand  to  hand,  and 
after  having  commanded  the  attention  of  manufac- 
turers, of  the  directors  of  railroad  companies,  etc., 
it  reached  the  managers  of  the  shops  and  the  fore- 
men, who  were  struck  by  the  practical  advice,  based 
on  a  profound  knowledge  of  the  world  of  labor,  which 
they  met  in  every  line. 

From  that  moment  Frederick  Taylor  acquired  in 
France  the  right  of  citizenship,  and  the  assimila- 
tion of  his  ideas  and  of  his  method  was  only  a 
question  of  time. 

If  Frederick  Taylor  had  awakened  the  interest  of 
experts  by  the  application  he  had  made  of  the  scien- 
tific method,  the  manufacturers  and  their  associates 
had  recognized  a  master  in  him  and  did  not  allow 
him  to  be  reduced  again  to  the  rank  of  the  inventor 
of  a  system  of  industrial  control. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  French,  thereby  following 
their  natural  bent  and  conforming  to  their  traditions, 
will  be  m.ore  and  more  drawn  to  Frederick  Taylor's 
ideas  because  of  the  ideal  that  inspires  them  and 
of  the  fact  that  Mr.  Taylor,  in  showing  how  the 
scientific  method  can  be  made  accessible  and  put 
within  reach  of  a  great  many  fellow  laborers  for 
the  development  of  a  vast  and  fertile  field,  re- 
sponds to  a  very  real  need  in  the  French  character. 

"Method"  has  long  been  honored  in  France.  It 
characterizes   the   spirit  which  the  great  technical 


\r 


i 


\ 


ii 


i;    .1 


'  •  t 


I 
f 


i\ 


t 


28   FREDERICK  WIN  SLOW  TAYLOR 

schools  endeavor  to  inculcate  in  their  pupils  and 
which  has  contributed  not  a  little  to  their  ability 
to  occupy  an  extremely  important  place  in  industry. 
It  is  the  men  who  have  gone  out  from  these  schools 
who  have,  for  more  than  a  century,  superintended 
the  building  of  the  scientifically  planned  bridges 
which  are  found  everywhere  spanning  the  rivers  of 
France.  The  discoveries  or  applications  of  science, 
made  by  their  successors,  do  not  count  more.  It  is 
useless  to  enumerate  them  here  —  for  America, 
which  does  not  have  to  borrow  any  laurels  from 
others,  is  the  country  in  which  one  most  often  hears 
homage  rendered  to  the  discoveries  of  French 
science.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  it  is  thanks  to  these 
men  that  the  French  railroads  were  able  a  year  ago 
to  accomplish  the  mobilization  of  troops  with  a 
precision  which  so  much  astonished  Americans.  It 
is  to  them  that  France  owes  her  artillery;  and  it  is 
the  spirit  of  ** method''  with  which  they  are  imbued 
which  has  put  them  at  the  head  of  our  armies.  If 
the  pupils  of  these  schools  have  occasionally  brought 
upon  themselves  the  reproach  of  wishing  to  intro- 
duce *' method,"  with  its  uncompromising  exactitude 
into  a  realm  which,  some  assert,  does  not  admit  of 
its  application  and  which  they  designate  by  the 
name  of  "  practice,"  it  is  because  they  themselves 
have  not  had  sufficient  faith  in  "  method  "  to  pursue 
the  application  to  its  logical  conclusion. 

These  men  are  the  first  to  admit  this  and  to  ac- 
knowledge that  Mr.  Taylor,  in  developing  ** method" 
in  industrial  operations  much  farther  than  anyone 
had  dared  to  conceive  of  doing  before,  has  estab- 
lished  "the  missing  link"   for  which  they  sought. 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR       29 

They  do  not  see  a  *' system"  in  Frederick  Taylor's 
work  (although  it  is  generally  so  designated  in 
France)  but  a  remarkable  extension  of  the  applica- 
tion of  *' method." 

The  French  workman  himself  was  not  the  last 
to  understand  how  Taylor  obtained  such  astound- 
ing results  in  the  working  of  metals.  Long  since 
accustomed  to  associate  the  names  of  scholars  with 
great  industrial  discoveries,  he  willingly  accords  to 
them  the  admiration  and  respect  due  to  extraordi- 
nary men,  and  frequently  experiences  a  lively  desire 
to  contribute,  however  little  it  may  be,  to  their 
work.  ''Never  mind,"  he  has  said  more  than  once 
to  himself,  after  having  applied  himself  very  methodi- 
cally to  his  task,  ''I  have  done  a  little  like  Taylor." 
So  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  seekers  after  prece- 
dents have  explored  France  with  the  greatest  care, 
in  the  hope  of  finding  the  germ  of  Mr.  Taylor's 
ideas  there.  But  they  have  been  obliged  to  admit 
that  they  found  themselves  in  the  presence  of  a 
new  work.  If  they  happened  to  discover  that  some 
of  the  finest  geniuses  of  French  mechanics,  such  as 
Belidor,  Vauban,  Coulomb,  had  paused  for  a  few 
moments  to  analyze  the  motions  of  the  workman 
and  had  left  a  few  notes  on  the  subject,  there  was 
still  no  connection  between  these  notes  and  the 
labors  of  Frederick  Taylor.  Not  only  were  these 
labors  not  minimized  by  these  great  men,  but  they 
received  brilliant  tributes  from  them. 

Frederick  Taylor  is  not,  however,  content  with 
teaching  how  to  observe:  he  wishes  to  show  how  to 
act.  He  proves  that  most  industrial  tasks  involve 
incredible  losses  of  energy,  —  that  they  are  not  co- 


IM 


>n 


iV 


r 


30       FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

ordinated,  except  by  altogether  insufficient  plans 
for  them  as  a  whole.  The  workman  is  not  trained: 
he  is  not  directed:  his  work  results  in  goods  of  such 
varying  quality  as  to  be  unworthy  of  the  time  in 
which  we  live. 

Routine  rules  supreme  in  the  shop.  It  often 
engenders  systematic  loafing  and,  at  other  times, 
overwork.  Order  must  be  installed,  and  to  that  end 
fixed  rules  for  the  management  of  the  work  must  be 
adopted,  from  the  top  to  the  bottom  of  the  scale. 
This  is  what  one  cannot  get  people  to  admit,  with- 
out the  greatest  difficulty.  Moreover  all  organiza- 
tion which  assures  the  effective  cooperation  of  the 
separate  elements  contributing  to  management  is 
often  sufficient  to  insure  the  success  of  a  business. 
Minute  study  of  the  motions  executed  during  a 
task  in  itself  makes  it  possible  to  perfect  the  habits 
which  constitute  the  power  of  the  workman.  And 
the  breaking  up  of  the  work  into  elements  easily 
grouped  together  is  the  only  way  to  establish  a  fair 
price  for  this  task,  leaving  no  room  for  any  errors 
by  either  party.  These  elements  of  work  have 
been  very  properly  compared,  by  one  of  Mr.  Taylor's 
associates,  to  the  letters  of  our  phonetic  alphabet. 
Why  not  make  use  of  them,  instead  of  continuing  to 
try  to  make  estimates  which  are  completely  lack- 
ing in  exactness,  and  which  may  be  likened  to  the 
endless  symbolic  characters  of  the  Chinese? 

It  has  been  said  that  many  people  would  rather 
die  than  pause  one  moment  in  their  work  to  re- 
flect on  what  they  are  doing.  How  many  others 
uselessly  w^aste  their  precious  time  and  strength 
constantly   reinventing   what   they   ought   to  have 


m 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR       3I 

learned  once  and  for  all .?     A  man  rarely  takes  the 
trouble  to  notice  what  is  under  his  eye;    not  even 
what  is  pointed  out  to  him.    The  simplest  observa- 
tion, such  as  is  apparently  within  reach  of  everybody, 
has  little   attraction   for  him.     He   is   continually 
asking  himself  why  all  that  he  sees  is  not  better 
done,  and  his  one  idea  is  to  improve  everything.    So 
there  were  not  lacking  innovators  anxious  to  make 
use  of  the  work  of  Frederick  Taylor  in  improving 
things.     They  found  themselves  face  to  face  with 
a  man  who  had  a  horror  of  compromise  and  was  un- 
willing to  distort  the  principles  which  he  had  enun- 
ciated.   Above  all  did  Taylor  consider  that  it  was  a 
waste  of  time  to  formulate  elementary  principles 
already  established.     A  professor  does  not  ask  his 
pupils  constantly  to  reaffirm  the  rules  of  grammar. 
Why  should  a  man  hesitate  to  adopt  those  rules 
which  govern  the  employment  of  all  his  time  and 
strength  and  the  activities  of  all  his  life,—  rules  in 
reality   much    more    sensible    than    those    rules    of 
grammar  which  make  it  possible  for  the  average 
man  to  express  himself  correctly? 

Habit  and  environment  have  made  the  most  com- 
plicated rules  instinctive.  Why  would  it  not  be  the 
same  with  those  which  have  to  do  with  coordinat- 
ing the  movements  of  the  workman  ?  All  this  ought 
not  to  be  constantly  the  subject  of  argument.  It 
ought  not  to  have  to  be  rediscovered. 

Frederick  Taylor  generously  said  that  if  he  sacri- 
ficed his  tastes,  which  inclined  him  towards  the 
study  of  mechanics,  in  order  to  accomplish  a  task 
very  often  monotonous  in  spite  of  its  great  impor- 
tance, it  was  in  the  hope  that  by  so  doing  he  would 


in 
f  ■■ 


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■i 

■     1 

'  V, 

i 

'\ 

,*  I 
■■  1 1 


32       FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

at  least  make  it  possible  for  others  to  devote  them- 
selves entirely  to  the  development  of  their  natural 
inclination  instead  of  having  continually  to  begin 
over  again  what  he  had  already  done. 

This  is  the  kind  of  education  of  a  man  which 
Frederick  Taylor  took  upon  himself.  It  is  a  task 
which  has  always  been  a  thankless  one,  and  which  is 
rendered  more  or  less  arduous  by  the  particular 
mentality  of  those  whom  it  addresses. 

The  mentality  of  men  varies  according  to  coun- 
try and  is  all  the  more  difficult  to  define  as  each  one 
is  made  up  of  contradictions.  It  is  generally  ad- 
mitted that  the  Frenchman  is  little  concerned  about 
the  exclusive  ownership  of  what  he  has  created  and 
that  he  has  frequently  neglected  to  exploit  his 
finest  inventions,  contenting  himself  with  having 
labored  for  humanity.  He  is,  however,  possessed 
with  a  fierce  individualism  in  anything  that  con- 
cerns his  personal  liberty. 

It  might  be  said  that  he  never  alienates  himself 
from  himself,  but  waits  until  this  constraint  is  put 
upon  him  from  without.  It  is  rarely  that  he  lends 
himself  to  long  collaboration. 

The  American,  who  seems  to  us  to  place  much 
more  emphasis  on  keeping  in  his  own  hands  what  he 
considers  to  be  his  own  property,  whose  motto  is 
"Mind  your  own  business,"  knows,  however,  how 
to  cooperate  with  others,  how  to  organize  a  partner- 
ship, and  he  is  willing  to  make  sacrifices  to  that  end. 

To  a  Frenchman,  the  work  of  Frederick  Taylor 
is  indeed  a  development  of  American  genius,  char- 
acterized by  an  elevated  feeling  for  the  individual. 
Here  we  find  again  the  eflfort  of  the  man  accustomed 


i 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR       33 

to  depending  on  himself  alone,  especially  on  his 
own  energy  and  perseverance,  constantly  taking 
most  minute  inventory  of  his  personal  resources — 
the  least  as  well  as  the  greatest  —  and  improving 
them  in  order,  with  the  cooperation  of  his  asso- 
ciates, to  exploit  them. 

Frederick  Taylor  teaches  his  countrymen  how  to 
make  tremendous  progress  in  the  path  which  is 
natural  to  them,  by  pointing  out  to  them  how  much 
trained  habits  increase  the  efficiency  of  a  man,  and 
hence  his  personal  value;  and  he  makes  an  appeal 
to  the  confidence  Americans  have  in  their  own 
ability,  to  enthuse  them  to  utilize  their  efforts  in 
the  shop  as  rationally  and  logically  as  they  are 
careful  to  use  them  on  their  own  account. 

Again  it  is  to  American  energy  that  Mr.  Taylor's 
indefatigable  efforts  to  call  attention  to  his  ideas 
and  to  establish  them  must  be  ascribed.  Taylor's 
ideas  have  seemed  to  be  revolutionary  to  some 
Americans.  To  a  Frenchman  they  were  born  and 
have  developed  in  the  very  environment  in  which 
they  should  naturally  be  born  and  developed,  i,e,, 
in  the  country  of  Benjamin  Franklin. 

Taylor  gives  a  lesson  of  the  greatest  importance 
to  the  French  in  acquainting  them  with  a  type  of 
organization  which  applies  equally  to  individual  and 
to  collective  organization,  making  it  possible  for 
them  to  make  the  best  of  their  natural  resources. 

Frederick  Taylor  liked  France  and  would  have 
liked  to  be  of  use  to  her.  For  the  too  brief  hours 
during  which  we  were  together,  we  happened  upon 
a  maritime  laboratory,  on  the  coast  of  Brittany, 
born  of  the  most  modest  beginnings  and  sheltering 


i  »ti 


ii* 


i\ 


34   FREDERICK  WIN  SLOW  TAYLOR 

for  several  years  the  joint  labors  of  fishermen  and 
scientists.  Discoveries  of  the  greatest  importance 
had  been  made  here  with  the  most  rudimentary 
material,  but  they  had  brought  very  little  honor  to 
their  authors.  The  most  elementary  of  their  valu- 
able findings  were  hardly  taken  advantage  of.  For 
instance,  when  they  investigated  matters  of  public 
interest  such  as  public  health,  they  brought  upon 
themselves  endless  trouble. 

They  consoled  themselves  with  reading  the 
accounts  of  the  application  made  in  distant  coun- 
tries, of  their  discoveries,  and  on  such  a  colossal 
scale  as  to  be  almost  incredible.  Frederick  Taylor 
must  have  made  more  than  one  reflection  when  visit- 
ing this  laboratory.  At  any  rate  he  had  the  pleas- 
ure of  being  able  to  say  to  his  hosts  that  there  was 
no  exaggeration  in  what  they  had  read,  and  that 
their  discoveries  had  been  made  the  object  of  the 
most  important  application. 

Frederick  Taylor  found  there  a  graphic  example 
of  a  fact  which  had  been  pointed  out  to  him  again 
and  again.  What  he  saw  excited  his  enthusiasm  but 
also  his  desire  to  help  France  to  derive  more  prac- 
tical advantage  from  the  discoveries  she  was  able 
to  make.  He  was  full  of  hope  on  this  subject,  for  he 
could  see  how  completely  his  ideas  had  found  an 
echo  in  France,  and  how  serious  were  the  efl^orts 
already  made  to  put  them  into  practice.  And  so 
during  the  last  sojourn  he  made  in  our  midst,  in  one 
of  those  addresses  in  which  one  would  seek  in  vain 
for  a  word  of  flattery,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  salute 
in  France  the  country  which  offered  the  finest  future 
for  the  application  of  his  methods. 


FREDERICK     WINbLOW     TAYLOR        35 

The  movement  then  launched,  which  seemed  so 
full  of  promise,  has  been  arrested  by  the  war,  but 
already  France  is  thinking  of  the  future,  and  of  the 
necessity,  greater  than  ever  before,  of  undertaking 
a  systematic  organization  of  her  resources  and  of 

her  work. 

The  "Kultur"  imposed  by  a  despotic  power  will 
always  be  a  horror  to  the  French  people,  but  they 
will  gladly  accept  a  method  —  a  plan  —  which 
encourages  the  development  of  individuality,  lay- 
ing its  foundation  on  its  individuality  and  giving  it 
consciousness  from  its  power.  This  is  what  they  will 
find  in  following  the  path  indicated  by  Frederick 
Taylor.  And  so  it  is  towards  him  that  many  eyes 
are  turning  to-day. 

Frederick  Taylor  presented  his  works  in  the  sim- 
plest possible  form  without  attempting  to  attract 
any  attention  to  himself  and  without  asking  him- 
self whether  the  reader  would  care  to  penetrate  his 
personality.  His  associates  have  told  me  from  the 
first  how  dependable  was  his  friendship,  so  I  may 
be  permitted  to  recall  the  impression  which  he  made 
on  a  stranger  who  had  the  good  fortune  to  pass 
several  hours  with  him,  first  in  his  accustomed 
environment  and  then  in  France,  in  altogether  dif- 
ferent and  greatly  varied  surroundings. 

Frederick  Taylor  was  an  observer  of  exceptional 
penetration,  but  his  work  is  witness  to  the  fact  that 
he  was  indeed  one  of  those  men,  rare  in  any  country, 
who  from  the  beginning  of  their  careers  subordinated 
all  their  actions  to  a  high  and  perfectly  definite 
purpose.  No  one  has  ever  done  so  with  more  energy 
or  determination.    In  full  command  of  this  masterly 


'it 


if 


I 


P^ 


f.  1 


36       FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

trait  of  scientific  observation  which  he  possessed  in 
such  high  degree,  he  continually  directed  it  towards 
a  definite  end.  Never  did  he  allow  his  imagination 
to  bewilder  his  observations,  or  to  alter  their  ex- 
actness.   They  all  bear  the  trace  of  absolute  sincerity. 

Again  we  detect  the  same  integrity  when  he  is 
concerned  with  the  application  of  his  ideas  to  the 
organization  of  labor.  He  is  not  afraid  of  provok- 
ing contradiction  and  he  did  not  welcome  that  ap- 
probation which  is  so  dangerous  and  which  drowns 
the  idea  by  returning  it  to  that  void  from  which  it 
had  been  delivered. 

Taylor  possessed  a  deep  lofty  mind,  embracing  a 
widely  extended  field  of  activity.  If  he  gave  himself 
particularly  to  the  task  of  making  people  under- 
stand the  efficacy  of  his  method  for  the  better 
utilization  of  material  resources  and  of  the  every- 
day activities;  if  it  pleased  him  to  show,  with  rare 
ability,  that  this  method  could  be  applied  as  well 
to  agriculture  as  to  mechanics  or  to  sports,  he  knew 
how  to  raise  himself  above  his  work  itself  in  order 
to  affirm  that  the  use  of  the  means  which  he  recom- 
mended must  cease  with  the  material  world.  And 
it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say.  that  in  struggling  against 
the  waste  of  energy  and  time  which  constantly  ac- 
companies not  only  industrial  labor  but  also  that 
of  everyday  life,  he  strives  to  make  a  larger  place 
for  the  intellectual  life. 

His  conception  of  spiritual  endeavors  was  very 
high.  Avoiding  a  too  common  confusion,  he  estab- 
lished an  absolute  distinction  between  the  work  of 
the  workman  and  that  of  the  artist.  He  knew  enough 
to  recognize  that  an  artist  worthy  of  the  name  must 


i 


n. 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR        37 

always  fear  to  imprint  the  trace  of  simply  manual 
or  physical  habits  on  his  work,  although  the  skill  of 
the  workman  is  the  result  of  this  same  methodical 
development  of  such  habits. 

Frederick  Taylor  regarded  spiritual  things  with 
great  respect.  He  was  deeply  touched  when  he 
learned  that  one  of  the  most  authoritative  voices 
of  the  French  pulpit,  in  a  daring  comparison,  had 
not  been  afraid  to  define  ''the  Love  of  God"  as 
''the  Taylor  System  of  our  inner  life." 

The  man  of  genius  is  not  frightened  by  the  great- 
ness of  the  task  which  he  undertakes,  and  troubles 
himself  little  about  the  profit  which  he  ought  to 
get  out  of  it,  for  it  is  a  small  task  indeed  whose 
materialization    does    not    exceed    the    life    of    an 

individual. 

Inevitably  Frederick  Taylor  could  not  have  put 
in  the  complete  development  of  the  movement  which 
he  had  begun,  but  he  was  able  to  see  that  the  roots 
were  already  very  deep,  and  that  a  brilliant  future 
opened  up  before  him. 

His  last  days  were,  however,  to  be  greatly  sad- 
dened. After  having  devoted  his  life  to  the  better- 
ment of  material  conditions  and  to  the  raising  of  the 
standard,  he  had  to  witness  the  most  abominable 
use  which  man  has  ever  made  of  his  resources.  When 
I  saw  Taylor  in  Philadelphia  on  the  eve  of  this  ter- 
rible war,  he  recognized  perfectly  the  importance 
of  the  preparations  made  by  the  Germans  and  he 
saw,  better  than  anyone  else,  perhaps,  what  kind  of 
war  it  would  be  that  would  set  them  in  motion. 
But  he  refused  to  believe  that  a  man  capable  of 
unchaining  them  could  exist. 


1-1 


I 


•i' ' 


38       FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

This  is,  however,  what  happened.  The  letter 
which  he  wrote  me  at  that  time  showed  me  what  a 
shock  he  had  received.  He  could  not  free  his  mind 
from  that  scene  of  horror,  and  it  may  be  believed 
that  this  obsession  hastened  his  end  and  that 
Frederick  Winslow  Taylor  was  a  victim  of  modern 
barbarism. 


jl 


\ 


'     *i 


WHAT  DO  THE  GERMANS  THINK 

OF  TAYLOR? 

BY   PROFESSOR  A.  WALLICHS 

THE  character  and  significance  of  the  Taylor 
doctrine  have  been  accepted  by  the  German 
people  only  in  part,  both  because  the  time 
for  making  clear,  either  orally  or  in  writing,  Taylor's 
meaning  has  been  too  short,  and  because  we  here 
are  just  at  the  beginning  of  its  practical  application. 
Nevertheless  I  cherish  the  definite  hope  that  in  the 
near  future  the  true  value  of  Taylor's  efforts  will 
be  more  thoroughly  comprehended  and  appreciated 
by  a  large  number  of  the  German  people.  The 
essence  of  the  doctrine,  namely,  "To  better  the  con- 
ditions of  the  laboring  classes  and  to  increase  the 
general  pleasure  in  work,"  must  certainly  find  in 
the  German  people  fertile  ground  for  development. 
This  is  especially  true,  because  in  Germany  the  de- 
mand for  a  means  to  settle  social  inequalities  is 
becoming  steadily  stronger,  and  the  earnest  purpose 
to  get  together  in  the  pursuit  of  a  common  goal 
is  beginning  to  ripen  among  ever  larger  sections  of 
both  labor  and  capital. 

Taylor  did  not  grow  tired  of  pleading  with  both 
sides:  "Your  interests  are,  for  the  most  part,  not 
hostile,  but  identical."  And  he  did  not  content 
himself  with  words  alone:  he  had  proven  the  truth 
of  his  doctrine  in  practice  before  he  proclaimed  it. 


'il 


5 

»4 


■'  III 


t.i 


»  ; 


V      t 


40       FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

In  that  lies,  as  I  see  it,  the  immense  value  of  his 
work.  The  world  has  had  enough  of  the  profound 
opinions  of  learned  economists  and  philosophers  as 
to  human  happiness.  Taylor,  however,  did  not  give 
his  propositions  publicity  until  after  he  had  by  hard 
work  and  incessant  struggle  thoroughly  tested  the 
possibility  of  carrying  them  out.  In  his  classic 
"Shop  Management"  he  declares  repeatedly  that 
"  nothing  is  so  convincing  as  bringing  to  pass  actual 

results."  . 

The  remarkable  thoroughness  in  the  execution  ot 
his  work,  his  consideration  of  all  the  circumstances, 
—  whether  or  not  they  had  hitherto  seemed  insig- 
nificant, —  his  perseverance  in  the  pursuit  of  his 
aims,  must  and  will  find  ultimate  recognition  on  the 
part  of  the  German  people.  Economists,  German 
engineers,  and  scholars  who  understand  the  true 
essence  of  the  Taylor  doctrines  have,  almost  without 
exception,  become  his  disciples.  Among  these  we 
find  men  of  distinguished  reputation  such  as  Bathe- 
nau,  Kammerer,  Schlesinger,  Hempel,  Oswald  and 
others.  Naturally  the  Taylor  principles  are  most 
widespread  in  the  ranks  of  engineers  and  industrial 
managers.  Among  these  are  few  indeed  who  do  not 
know  at  least  the  name  of  the  Taylor  System; 
another  group,  forming  the  majority,  has  a  superficial 
knowledge  of  the  character  of  the  Taylor  doctrine; 
and  a  group  of  German  engineers,  of  by  no  means 
least  importance  to-day,  has  acquired  a  thorough 
understanding  in  all  respects  of  the  great  hfework  of 
Mr  Taylor.  Among  these  last  one  finds  unreserved 
appreciation,  while  the  critics  are  found  more  among 
those  who  have  only  a  superficial  knowledge  of  the 


1 

I 


i 


i 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR        4I 

system.  This  fact  is  the  best  recognition  of  the 
correctness  and  practical  value  of  Taylor's  principles. 
A  small  group  of  German  scholars  and  manu- 
facturers, immediately  after  the  publication  of 
Taylor's  basic  works,  *'Shop  Management"  and 
**0n  the  Art  of  Cutting  Metals,"  recognized  their 
far-reaching  significance.  So  it  seemed  to  the  writer 
a  worthy  task  to  make  Taylor's  books  useful  to  a 
wider  circle  of  German  engineers  by  translating 
them  into  German.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the 
latter  work,  *'0n  the  Art  of  Cutting  Metals,"  met 
with  greater  appreciation  than  "Shop  Management." 
The  reason  for  this  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that 
the  latter  book  dealt  with  experiments  and  proper- 
ties of  steel  and  so  brought  into  prominence  valu- 
able discoveries  in  the  difficult  problem  of  the  proper 
production  of  high-speed  steel,  with  the  result  that 
people  were  eager  to  utilize  this  knowledge  in  the 
metal-working  shops.  This  book  aroused  the  great- 
est interest  in  manufacturing  circles  as  well  as 
among  scientists.  The  minuteness  of  detail,  thor- 
oughness, and  uncommonly  logical  method  of  Tay- 
lor's work,  overcoming  all  difficulties,  called  forth 
our  undivided  admiration.  Indeed,  the  procedure 
as  adopted  by  Taylor  to  solve  the  difficult  problem 
of  the  regular  production  of  high-speed  steel  may 
candidly  be  designated  as  classic.  The  efforts  of 
engineers  and  scientists  all  over  the  world  to  at- 
tain results  in  similar  lines  had  led  to  no  results, 
because  they  had  failed  to  investigate  each  variable, 
of  which  Taylor  names  twelve,  individually,  while 
holding  the  others  constant.  Taylor  was  the  first 
one  to  succeed  in  a  comprehensive  plan.    He  showed 


|. 


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V,i 


I 

i 
,  t 

■| 

'It 

'  if 


42       FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

how  experiments  must  be  conducted  in  the  workshop 
with  genuine  scientific  thoroughness  and  proper  se- 
quence in  order  to  obtain  practical  results.  By  this 
Taylor  has  rendered  to  industry  as  well  as  to  science 
inestimable  service.  It  might  be  further  empha- 
sized that  the  great  significance  of  Taylor's  writings 
was  recognized  simultaneously  by  engineers  and 
scientists.  I  need  but  mention  the  names  of  Neu- 
haus  and  Schlesinger. 

After  the  favorable  receptoin  which  the  German 
edition  of  this  book,  On  the  Art  of  Cutting  Metals/' 
had  met  in  Germany,  it  was  clear  that  Taylor's 
basic  work  entitled  ''Shop  Management"  could  not 
long  be  withheld  from  German  engineering  circles, 
The  writer,  therefore,  undertook  at  once  this  task, 
with  all  the  greater  zeal  because  after  careful  study 
he  found  it  a  treasure  house  of  great  truths  in  the 
difficult  art  of  management  and  especially  in  the 
treatment  of  the  workmen.  Taylor  recognized  that 
the  often  asserted  antagonism  of  the  interests  of 
employer  and  employee  need  not  exist  with  proper 
management  and  treatment;  that  rather  there 
exists  a  mutual  interest  in  the  success  of  the  enter- 
prise, and  that  this  same  interest  can  well  be  united 
with  a  higher  wage  and  more  humane  treatment  of 
the  worker.  With  remarkable  insight  he  devised 
ways  and  means  to  save  unnecessary  loss  of  time, 
yet  without  the  necessity  of  overworking  the  oper- 
atives. He  recognized  the  significance  in  their 
bearing  on  the  final  result  of  all  the  circumstances 
hitherto  considered  merely  incidental.  The  small 
things  and  the  seemingly  insignificant  he  found 
worthy  of  exhaustive  investigation;  and  just  because 


•  i 


i 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR       43 


they  hitherto  had  been  neglected,  these  incidentals 
offered  so  much  room  for  improvement  that  the 
result  of  the  aggregate  was  amazingly  beneficial. 
No  one  had  suspected  how  much  time  actually  had 
been  lost  by  unnecessary  motions  and  faulty  arrange- 
ment. Taylor  shed  light  in  every  nook  and  corner 
of  the  daily  routine,  and  examined  everything  in 
the  effort  for  well-planned  use  of  time.  His  ability 
to  grasp  things  fully  and  with  keen  perseverance  to 
draw  from  the  knowledge  attained  its  practical  appli- 
cation^ together  with  his  wonderful  knowledge  of  men 
and  his  true  love  for  humanity^  enabled  him  to  win 
a  success  which  has  aroused  the  astonishment  and 
admiration  of  the  zvorld, 

I  now  turn  to  the  question,  "In  what  measure 
thus  far  have  results  been  obtained  in  Germany 
by  the  application  of  the  Taylor  principles.^" 

In  some  places  very  noteworthy  beginnings  have 
been  made.  In  many  places  there  exists  the  ''ear- 
nest intention  "  to  gain  the  economic  and  social  advan- 
tages resulting  from  the  use  of  the  new  doctrine. 
However,  success  in  the  sense  of  favorable  or  un- 
favorable economic  influencing  of  results  in  industry 
in  general  presupposes  a  longer  existence  of  the  new 
system.  But  we  cannot  yet  speak  of  this,  for  a 
general  dissemination  of  this  new  theory  in  the 
economic  circles  of  this  country  has  taken  place 
only  within  the  last  two  years,  in  spite  of  the  pub- 
lication in  German  of  the  basic  Taylor  writings,  as 
far  back  as  the  beginning  of  1909.  If,  therefore,  I 
can  report  but  little  of  our  experiences  in  Germany 
with  ** scientific  management"  (as  the  Taylor  doc- 
trine has  justly  been  termed  of  late),  I  may  never- 


1  ,!.i 


-  i-i 


I 


I 


1       ! 


itl 


I 


i 

m 


1 1 


u 


f 


44       FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

theless  treat  the  subject  somewhat  more  broadly 
with  respect  to  our  domestic  industries  and  speak  of 
the  probable  effect  on  our  social  and  economic  life, 
to  be  expected  from  the  general  introduction  of  the 
new  system.  In  Germany  it  is  about  the  same  with 
scientific  management  as  with  many  inventions  in 
technique.  German  industry  takes  up  new  ideas 
much  more  slowly  than  foreign  industries,  but  it 
soon  far  surpasses  them  in  development  and  scope 
because  it  undertakes  the  experimentation  and  com- 
plete working  out  with  genuine  German  scientific 
thoroughness  and  perseverance.  When  I  first  be- 
came acquainted  with  Taylor's  doctrine,  I  was 
surprised  that  these  ideas  originated  in  America 
and  not  in  Germany,  because  the  admirable  thor- 
oughness, the  great  perseverance  with  which  Taylor 
pursued  his  goal,  the  almost  arbitrary  rules  covering 
all  apparently  unimportant  details  and  processes, 
the  analyzing  and  observing  one  by  one  of  all  the 
activities  and  motions,  are  phenomena  which  are 
more  characteristic  of  the  German  than  of  the  Ameri- 
can  people. 

This  fact  established,  the  many  objections  to  the 
possibility  of  a  general  introduction  of  Taylor's 
scientific  management  in  German  industries  are 
removed.  For  the  reasons  already  stated,  it  is 
admirably  suited  for  our  conditions,  that  is  to  say, 
the  application  of  these  principles  as  such;  not, 
however,  the  wholesale  transplanting  of  all  the  regu- 
lations and  mechanisms,  as  employed  in  any  par- 
ticular one  or  another  of  the  shops  organized  by 
Taylor  in  the  United  States.  To  be  sure,  these  give 
us  the  key  and  the  main  outlines  how  to  proceed, 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 


45 


but  by  no  means  the  absolutely  binding  directions 
for  its  application.  We  are  not  to  introduce  this 
new  system,  but  to  develop  it  point  by  point,  in 
accordance  with  our  own  conditions.  We  should 
proceed  according  to  genuine  scientific  method,  not 
empirically;  we  must  try  to  find  the  existing  laws 
in  both  mechanical  processes  and  handwork,  and  on 
these  as  a  basis,  build  up  standards  and  laws  cover- 
ing how  and  with  what  aids  the  work  is  to  be  done. 

The  reasons  which  hinder  a  rapid  and  extended 
application  of  Taylor's  doctrine  lie  not  in  the  limi- 
tations of  the  field  but  in  the  lack  of  trained  forces 
to  guide  its  introduction,  and  partly  also  in  the 
weakness  of  human  nature  among  the  managers. 
The  self-esteem  of  many  of  these  gentlemen  is  hurt 
by  the  thought  that  processes  discovered  and  devel- 
oped by  others  should  be  better  than  their  own  kind 
of  management  worked  out  through  decades  of 
struggle  and  strife,  in  many  cases  with  successful 
results.  They  oppose  it,  therefore,  chiefly  because 
they  fail  to  recognize  the  superiority  of  new  methods. 
Many  assert  that  they  have  long  since  recognized 
and  adopted  to  a  large  extent  the  principles  devel- 
oped by  Taylor.  They  also  consider  that  Taylor's 
control  of  the  smallest  elements,  going  beyond 
anything  they  undertake  in  their  own  organization, 
is  superfluous  hair-splitting.  Where  these  concep- 
tions have  taken  root,  they  undoubtedly  work  against 
the  spread  of  scientific  management,  since  the  better 
is  always  the  enemy  of  the  good.  Nor  can  it  be 
disputed  that  at  least  a  part  of  these  assertions  are 
correct.  We  know  of  numerous  organizations  in 
most  branches  of  our  industries,  which  have  achieved 


I 


i: 


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*'! 


'i 


'ft 


^f 


5       * 


l«     t 


i 


46       FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

phenomenal  success  because  of  their  well  regulated 
and  fairly  well  executed  planning  of  work;  but  no 
one  had  proven  or  even  suspected  that  thorough 
scientific  observation  of  all,  even  the  minutest  and 
seemingly  most  insignificant  processes,  would  result 
in  such  significant  reductions  in  the  time  and  effort 
of  work.  No  one  else  has  shown  Taylor's  perse- 
verance in  carrying  through  a  well-defined  logical 
program.  Still  less  have  our  managers  perceived  the 
importance  of  the  co5peration  of  the  workers  for 
obtaining  the  greatest  economy.  The  social  aspects 
of  his  success  are  not  sufficiently  recognized.  Taylor 
himself  places  them  above  the  purely  technical 
features.  Just  a  short  time  ago  he  expressed  himself 
clearly  on  this  subject  to  a  German  visitor.  His 
words  follow: 

"These  plans  for  reducing  the  cost  of  production 
will  be  improved  and  surpassed  by  others,  primarily 
through  machine  technique  and  also  through  better 
ideas  of  organization;  of  all  these  things  which 
to-day  we  claim  as  the  best  obtainable,  not  one 
will  remain. 

'*But  one  thing  will  and  must  remain,  and  that  is 
the  basic  idea  which  guided  me,  from  the  very  begin- 
ning, in  all  my  work;  namely,  the  fundamental 
recognition  which  alone  carries  us  forward: 

"the  earnest  and  honest  effort  for  improved 

RELATIONS  BETWEEN  EMPLOYER  AND  EMPLOYEE, 
THE  STRIVING  TO  ABOLISH  THE  ANTAGONISM  BE- 
TWEEN THESE  TWO  FACTIONS  — TO  THIS  WE  MUST 
STEADFASTLY   HOLD." 

Such  words  prove  that  Taylor  sees,  in  social  prog- 
ress, his  greatest  success. 


I 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR       47 

To  judge  by  the  numerous  statements  which  have 
come  to  me  from  managers,  I  cannot  conclude  that 
the  large  majority  of  these  men  deny  the  superiority 
of  Taylor's  ideas  over  established  conceptions.  We 
have  a  suflScient  number  of  men  who,  free  from  an 
exaggerated  idea  of  their  own  success,  wish  to  make 
the  most  of  the  economic  value  of  this  new  doctrine. 
But  more  diflScult  to  meet  is  the  above  mentioned 
lack  of  organizers  trained  in  Taylor's  ideas.  For 
the  improvement  of  this  condition,  both  public  and 
private  bodies  should  cooperate  in  the  interests  of 
industry  and,  through  special  courses  of  instruction 
and  trips  to  the  United  States  for  study,  take  steps 
to  build  up  a  suitable  force  of  teachers. 

The  systematic  training  of  organizers  is  quite 
essential  for  the  following  reasons.  The  develop- 
ment of  scientific  management  must  be  undertaken 
in  the  factories  without  disturbance  and  along  with 
the  regular  routine  work,  by  a  special  organizer, 
not  by  the  manager  of  the  plant.  The  manager 
has  neither  the  time  nor  the  thorough  knowledge  to 
carry  out  all  the  details  of  study  in  accordance  with 
the  prescribed  regulations.  The  introduction  of 
such  a  new  task  requires,  therefore,  considerable 
additional  work,  which  primarily  has  little  to  do 
with  the  process  of  production;  step  by  step  after 
preparation,  the  various  departments  of  the  shop 
undergo  reorganization. 

All  the  reports  received  from  German  industrial 
circles  of  initial  experience  during  introduction  are, 
almost  without  exception,  favorable.  As  an  example 
I  append  a  report  of  a  firm  engaged  in  the  wood 
industry  in  the  Rhine  district: 


"i  J 


'i  k 


it 


48 


FREDERICK      WiNSLOW      TAYLOR 


"The  first  test  with  Taylor's  principles  was  made 
on  a  *Fasson'  lathe  which  turned  out  large  quan- 
tities of  wooden  pieces  for  cabinet  makers.  A 
worker  on  this  machine  worked  at  piece  work  at 
the  rate  of  three  (3)  pfennigs  per  meter,  earning 
at  his  maximum  capacity  between  4  and  4.20  marks 
daily,  accomplishing  about  130  to  150  meters'  work 
during  the  same  working  time.  After  time  studies 
were  taken  with  a  stop  watch,  it  proved  that  the 
actual  working  time  was  only  one-fourth  of  the 
total  time  and  that  the  rest  of  the  time  was  lost 
through  the  sharpening  of  tools,  setting  up,  repair- 
ing of  belts,  bringing  of  the  material,  etc. 

"We  introduced,  first  of  all,  tools  of  high-speed 
steel  instead  of  the  ordinary  kind  hitherto  used; 
we  replaced  the  existing  bronze  bearings  with  ball 
bearings,  and  the  ordinary  belts  with  best  quality 
leather  belts.  The  result  was  remarkable.  Al- 
though the  worker  was  transferred  from  piece  work 
to  day  work  based  on  his  average  daily  earnings, 
he  easily  produced  300  meters  daily.  After  the 
introduction  of  a  premium  system,  based  on  his  daily 
wage,  in  a  short  time  he  ran  up  to  400  meters  daily. 
Through  further  time  studies  it  was  then  established 
that  the  forward  and  backward  run  of  the  machine 
which  heretofore  had  been  done  by  the  workman, 
could  be  done  automatically,  and  that  during  the 
backward  run  the  next  piece  of  material  could  be 
brought  up  by  the  workman.  The  result  of  these 
further  improvements  is  the  present  daily  production 
of  at  least  550  meters  and  average  earning  of  about 
5  marks  daily  for  young  workers  from  17  to  18 
years  of  age,  while  formerly  adults,  working  to  the 


k 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR       49 


limit  of  their  endurance,  could  earn  only  4.20 
marks. 

"As  we  did  not  simply  pocket  as  profit  the  ad- 
vantage in  production  so  obtained,  but  reduced 
correspondingly  the  selling  price,  there  resulted 
immediately  an  increased  volume  of  sales,  so  that 
not  only  was  no  reduction  in  working  force  neces- 
sary, but  on  the  contrary,  the  installation  of  a 
second  and  then  a  third  Fasson  lathe. 

"To  the  above  mentioned  favorable  result  was 
added  the  circumstance  that,  according  to  Taylor's 
doctrine,  we  took  the  Fasson  lathes  at  once  away 
from  the  supervision  of  the  general  foreman,  and 
instead  we  established  a  functional  foreman,  whose 
only  duty  was  to  provide  the  raw  material  and  set 
up  the  machines.  The  above  result  shows  how  this 
unproductive  labor  paid  for  itself." 

This  report  is  in  many  respects  very  instructive. 
It  shows  that  in  a  plant  excellently  managed  accord- 
ing to  ordinary  standards,  studies  made  in  a  small 
auxiliary  department  under  the  inspiration  of  Taylor's 
works,  and  changes  made  on  the  basis  of  these 
studies,  have  resulted  in  surprisingly  large  economies 
for  the  business,  and  in  essentially  increased  earnings 
for  the  workman;  this,  too,  without  taking  any 
steps  to  change  the  entire  organization  through 
especially  trained  organizers.  Naturally  in  this 
plant  further  studies  and  adjustments  will  follow 
until,  in  the  course  of  years,  it  can  be  said  that  in 
all  respects  the  standardization  of  the  working  proc- 
esses has  been  completed.  The  report  shows  that 
where  the  determination  for  improvement  exists, 
former  shortcomings   are  quickly  found.     Without 


.til 


I  I 


fi 


■I 


50       FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

exaggeration  one  can   maintain   that  in  all  plants 
like  successes  in  individual  cases  can  be  obtained. 

Another  report  lies   before   me,  from   the   repair 
shop  of  a  chemical  plant  in  the  south  of  Germany. 
Here,  to  be  sure,  the  work  was  done  by  one  of  the 
few  organizers  now  living  in  Germany,  who  had  been 
trained  in  one  of  the  Taylor  plants  in  the  United 
States.     The    success    here    was    in    an    altogether 
different   field;    while   in   the   former   instance   the 
improvements  were   limited   principally  to   an   im- 
provement in  method  for  a  work  chiefly  mechanical, 
in   the   chemical    plant   the    success    was    achieved 
exclusively  by   a   strictly   supervised   preparation   and 
division  of  the  tasks  to  be  done  by  the  repair  workers, 
employed    mainly  on  handwork.     A  w^ork  order  in 
the  Taylor  sense,  heretofore  considered  impossible, 
was  introduced.     This  gave  to  each  workman  each 
day  a   task   defined  in  writing  and  with  only  one 
possible  interpretation  as  to  time,  nature,  and  extent. 
At  the  same  time  order  in  keeping   of  stores  was 
established  according  to  the  Taylor  methods.     Even 
in  the  first  year  after  the  introduction,  the  yearly 
losses  in  stores  were  greatly  decreased,  and  the  amount 
of  work  accomplished  was  greatly  increased.     Great 
economies  were  already  effected,  without  any  change 
in  the  wage  system.     As  is  known,  Taylor  and  his 
followers    have   obtained    the   greatest    increase    in 
production  through   changing  the  wage   system  in 
such  a  way  that  the  workman,  on  accomplishing  the 
tasks  in  the  prescribed  time,  receives  a  considerable 
increase  in  wage. 

The  workmen  pay  no  attention  to  the  time  limit 
if  the  incentive  of  increased  wages  does  not  impel 


lilM 


'•wi 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR       5I 

them  to  it.  The  use  of  such  wage  systems  as 
increase  the  desire  to  accomplish  the  task  can,  how- 
ever, be  successful  only  when  a  strictly  regulated 
scheduling  of  order  of  work,  of  moving  of  material, 
and  of  maintenance  of  standards,  etc.,  has  been  put 
through.  So  far  as  I  know,  no  plant  in  Germany 
has  yet  reached  this  stage ;  but  from  previous  obser- 
vations I  do  not  doubt  that  we  shall  ultimately  do 
so.  In  one  department  of  a  large  Berlin  machine 
shop  the  men  no  longer  object  as  they  have  hereto- 
fore to  the  exact  measurement  by  the  stop  watch 
of  the  working  time  of  the  best  workmen  for  the 
purpose  of  determining  a  just  piece  rate.  They 
have  recognized  this  method  as  just  and,  since  the 
introduction  of  this  strictly  controlled  management, 
they  have  drawn  essentially  higher  wages,  averaging 
90  pfennigs  per  hour.  Of  course  the  stop  watch 
can  be  used  only  openly  for  the  measuring  of  the 
working  time,  any  underhanded  methods  being 
rightly  subject  to  deep  mistrust.  And  you  must 
not  call  it  the  *' Taylor  System,"  the  worker's  press 
having  frequently  warned  against  this  system  and 
the  workers  themselves  repeatedly  been  urged  to 
resist  every  attempt  at  its  introduction. 

It  will  be  seen,  from  these  reports,  that  Taylor's 
ideas  have  found  fertile  ground  here  in  Germany. 
The  great  European  war  has  been  an  obstacle  in  the 
development  of  this  as  in  so  many  other  relations. 
Nevertheless,  I  am  fully  convinced  that  after  peace 
is  proclaimed,  which,  let  us  hope,  will  be  soon, 
Taylor's  stimulation  will  be  felt  again  in  Germany 
with  redoubled  force  —  to  bless  a  favorable  economic 
development  and  to  better  the  lot  of  the  workman. 


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APPRECIATION    OF    MR.    FREDERICK 

W.  TAYLOR 

BY  PROFESSOR  J.  J.   SEDERHOLM 

THE  most  memorable  event  during  my  three 
months  travehng  in  North  America  was 
undoubtedly  my  meeting  with  Mr.  Taylor. 
It  was  so,  both  because  I  personally  admired  him 
so  much,  and  because  I  think  that  his  teachings  are 
exactly  what  we  want  in  my  country,  Finland. 

I  can  add  nothing  to  the  characteristics  of  his 
personality,  and  should  I  speak  of  the  kindness 
with  which  he  offered  me  his  help,  I  should  have 
only  to  describe  what  all  of  his  friends  have  expe- 
rienced. Let  me  therefore  restrict  myself  to  con- 
sidering what  benefit  my  own  country  may  be 
expected  to  reap  from  his  influence. 

As  is  well  known,  the  struggle  for  existence 
between  the  nations  of  Europe  is  very  keen  both 
politically  and  economically.  The  small  nations  in 
particular  are  forced  to  strain  all  their  efforts  in 
order  not  to  be  overwhelmed  or  left  behind. 

It  is  therefore  simply  a  necessity  for  us  to  learn 
from  every  nation,  appropriating  the  best  which 
they  have  to  offer.  Personally  I  think  that  we  have 
especially  much  to  learn  from  the  United  States. 
Of  this  I  may  mention  an  instance,  rather  trivial 
in  itself,  but  significant.  When  our  sportsmen 
formed  the  ambitious  plan  that  Finland  should  beat, 


!&^??^*ys^.^^^ 


'*«)»*?*-■?*► 


'  m^m^i^m^mm, 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR       53 

at  the  last  Olympian  games,  as  many  of  the  other 
countries  as  possible,  they  took  their  training 
methods  from  America.  The  result  was  that  little 
Finland  became  the  fourth  country  of  the  world  in 
this  international  sporting  contest,  ranking  next  to 
the  United  States,  Sweden,  and  England,  and  beat- 
ing Germany,  France  and  other  large  countries. 

Now  I  think  that  in  all  kinds  of  human  industry 
we  also  ought  to  learn  from  the  Americans  how  to 
**go  ahead,"  hoping  for  a  similar  success  if  we  do  so. 

The  Taylor  System  is  to  Europe  not  only  ''an 
American  lesson,"  it  is  the  American  lesson.  It  is 
true  that  I  have  read  in  a  foreign  newspaper  an  article 
about  it,  full  of  misrepresentations,  in  which  it 
was  styled  "false  Americanism."  To  me,  on  the 
contrary,  it  is  the  very  essence  of  good  Americanism. 

We  have,  in  most  countries  of  Europe,  enough  of 
strong  and  industrious  laborers,  but  much  work  is 
here  going  on  with  an  exasperating  inefficiency. 
Remember  that  Finland  lies  in  the  same  latitude 
as  Greenland,  a  circumstance  which  accounts  suffi- 
ciently for  a  good  deal  of  dullness.  When  our  people 
go  to  America,  they  are  stimulated  and  work  very 
differently,  but  when  they  return  it  is  not  long  before 
they  revert  to  earlier  habits. 

The  Taylor  System  enables  us  to  introduce  Ameri- 
can briskness  in  every  field  of  human  industry  in 
Europe. 

In  my  youth  I  read,  with  much  pleasure,  the  book 
of  Laboulaye,  ''Paris  in  America."  Now  we  want 
another  thing,  which  might  be  properly  called  "  Phil- 
adelphia in  Europe."  Every  workshop  in  Europe 
where  the  Taylor  methods  are  introduced  is  like  a 


' 


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ii 


54 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 


little    Taylor-Philadelphia,    an     American     colony, 
founded  by  the  followers  of  Mr.  Taylor. 

There  we  will  learn  how  to  work  with  American 
quickness  and  efficiency.  But,  as  is  well  known, 
the  Taylor  System  is  not  at  all  a  method  of  "speed- 
ing up."  It  is  a  system  of  working  intelligently, 
with  spared  effort,  and  it  offers  to  everybody  taking 
part  in  the  work  advantages  unheard  of  before. 
Therefore,  every  ''Philadelphia  in  Europe''  may  also, 
in  accordance  with  the  literal  meaning  of  the  name 
of  the  Quaker  City,  be  called  a  "fraternity,"  a 
** brother  loving  community."  Every  workshop 
where  the  Taylor  System  is  used  is  a  place  where 
men  work  in  harmony,  in  conjoint  effort,  to  mutual 
benefit,  and  more  intelligently  than  ever  before. 

This  we  regard  to  be  the  great  discovery  of  Mr. 
Taylor,  that  he  has  found  the  necessity  of  using 
much  more  brains  than  before  in  managing  industries 
and,  in  general,  all  human  work.  His  scheme  seems 
to  be  as  simple  and  obvious  as  the  famous  egg  of 
Columbus,  but  it  is,  however,  in  most  fields  an 
innovation. 

Last  winter  when  I  was  alternately  lecturing  on 
the  Taylor  System  and  the  Evolution  of  the  Animal 
World,  I  was  struck  by  a  curious  analogy.  In  the 
history  of  the  earth,  it  was  only  at  a  late  date  that 
nature  discovered  the  usefulness  of  large  brains. 
The  monster  reptiles  of  the  Mesozoic  era  had  only 
minute  brains  in  their  gigantic  bodies.  Still  at  the 
eve  of  the  Tertiary  era  mammals  with  the  size  of 
our  cattle  had  brains  as  small  as  a  walnut,  and  it 
was  not  until  the  end  of  that  era  that  the  brains 
attained  their  present  size.  This  development  reached 


M 


if 


^««*»3 


''■'^^^^sfmm^^i,. 


"•m&m.Am^-''' 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR       ^^ 

its  climax  in  Man,  Homo  Sapiens^  the  animal  with 
brains,  who,  on  account  of  his  intellect,  became  the 
master  of  the  earth. 

Industry  has  still  to  learn  the  same  lesson.  It  has 
not  yet  advanced  beyond  the  Mesozoic  stage,  but 
the  time  will  soon  come  when  people  will  regard 
shops  without  a  planning  department  of  sufficient 
size,  shops  where  hundreds  of  laborers  are  managed 
by  half  a  dozen  of  engineers  and  foremen,  with  the 
same  wonder  as  is  felt  by  us  when  we  look  at  the 
skeleton  of  a  Diplodocus  Carnegie  with  its  gigantic 
body  and  almost  microscopical  brain.  And  when 
that  time  arrives,  then  everybody  will  also  recognize 
the  greatness  of  Frederick  Winslow  Taylor,  the 
discoverer  of  the  simple  truth  that  large  brains  are 
necessary  in  industries  and,  in  general,  for  managing 
all  kinds  of  human  labor. 


^J 


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BY  CARL  G.  BARTH 

WHILE    I    made    Mr.    Taylor's    personal 
acquaintance  at  least  as  far  back  as  the 
year    1884,   while   working   for  William 
Sellers  &  Co.  of  this  city  as  a  draftsman,  and  as  such 
occasionally  had  to  do  with  the  working  up  of  some  of 
his  ideas  for  the  improvement  of  machine  tools,  it 
was  not  until  the  summer  of  the  year  1899  that  I 
became   associated   with  him   at  the  works  of  the 
Bethlehem  Steel  Co.,  an  association  which  continued 
uninterruptedly  until  his  death,  nearly  sixteen  years. 
But  while  therefore,  abstractly,  in  a  better  posi- 
tion than  anybody  else  to  give  an  account  of  his 
work  and  influence  during  this  period  of  his  life,  I 
am  by  temperament,  and  by  lack  of  education  along 
certain  lines,  anything  but  fitted  for  such  a  task  in 
a  manner  befitting  an  occasion  like  this.     Besides, 
the   time   allotted   is   too   short   for  this.     What   I 
can  say  will  therefore   be  of  a  fragmentary  nature 
only,  and  principally  intended  to  give  a  little  in- 
sight into  Mr.  Taylor's  great  character,  as  I  learned 
to  view  it  in  my  association  with  him. 

When  Mr.  Taylor  began  the  original  work  that 
finally  culminated  in  a  complete  system  of  scientific 
management  for  industrial  establishments,  he  had 
no  idea  of  what  he  was  steering  towards.  The 
diflficulties  that  first  beset  him  in  his  career  as  a 
leader  of  men,  led  him  to  believe  that  most  of  them 


■"-'.^»ni*Km^:^~B 


'''MmiismMgmfiiJbmA^.. 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR       57 

would  disappear  if  he  could  find  some  scientific 
way  of  predetermining  the  time  it  should  take  to 
do  a  given  piece  of  work  in  a  machine  tool,  such  as 
a  lathe  or  a  planer.  However,  it  took  him  and  his 
several  associates  a  period  of  some  eighteen  years 
before  this  problem  was  even  theoretically  solved 
to  his  satisfaction,  and  still,  odd  as  it  seems,  the 
solution  effected  is  to-day  almost  forgotten,  in 
view  of  the  many  other  problems  that  beset  the 
management  of  an  industrial  institution,  for  which 
Mr.  Taylor  has  also  offered  such  eminently  satis- 
factory solutions  along  scientific  lines. 

However,  when  I  joined  Mr.  Taylor  at  Bethlehem, 
it  was  for  the  express  purpose  of  assisting  him  in  the 
solution  of  this,  his  original  pet  problem;  and  I 
shall  never  forget  the  intense  delight  evinced  by  Mr. 
Taylor  on  the  morning  of  a  certain  day  when  I  was 
able  to  hand  him  an  empirical  mathematical  formula 
representing  the  results  obtained  by  a  set  of  experi- 
ments made  in  metal  cutting  with  high-speed  tools 
of  his  and  Mr.  White's  renowned  make,  which  was 
at  once  recognized  as  the  beginning  of  a  better  way 
of  attacking  the  problem  than  anything  previously 
brought   to   light. 

The  fact  that  the  work  was  not  his  own  did  not 
in  the  least  detract  from  his  satisfaction.  Great 
soul  that  he  was,  it  did  not  matter  to  him  whence 
the  solution  came,  —  his  efforts  for  so  many  years 
seemed  finally  likely  of  being  crowned  with  success, 
and  that  was  all  he  cared  for. 

It  was  a  few  months  later  that  the  final  solution 
of  this  problem  enabled  Mr.  Taylor's  task  system,  in 
conjunction  with  Mr.  Gantt's  bonus,  as  a  substi- 


"t 


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'I 


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Iff 


58       FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

tute  for  Mr.  Taylor's  differential  piece  rates,  to  be 
instituted  at  Bethlehem.  Inside  of  a  comparatively 
short  time  this  led  to  that  most  astonishing  increase 
in  production,  which  at  the  time  was  the  wonder  of 
all  visitors  to  the  works,  and  which  was  partly  due 
to  the  high  speed  tools,  and  partly  to  the  scientific 
methods  employed  in  their  use  on  machines  that 
had  been  rebuilt  and  respeeded  to  meet  the  new  condi- 
tions, in  connection  with  the  reward  to  the  workmen 
who  properly  cooperated  in  the  whole  matter. 

My  first  visit  with  Mr.  Taylor  at  Bethlehem 
for  the  purpose  of  discussing  a  possible  engagement 
happened  to  be  on  a  day  that  certain  yard  laborers, 
who  were  to  be  put  on  piece  rates,  threatened  to 
strike.  Word  to  that  effect  reached  Mr.  Taylor 
during  our  interview,  but  while  it  is  impossible  to 
believe  that  it  did  not  inwardly  affect  him,  he  did 
not  betray  the  slightest  perturbance  and  completed 
his  interview  with  me  as  if  nothing  had  happened. 
I  will  add  that  I  learned  later  that  the  strike  did 
not  take  place. 

While  Mr.  Taylor  at  times  was  a  very  exacting 
master,  and  at  all  times  demanded  that  every  sub- 
ordinate do  his  full  duty,  he  was  also  so  high  minded 
that  he  readily  took  a  reprimand  from  a  subordinate. 
I  shall  thus  never  forget  the  fine  manner  in  which 
he  once  took  a  most  rude  reminder  from  myself,  and  I 
cannot  refrain  from  the  temptation  to  tell  the  story. 

I  was  in  his  oflfice  waiting  for  his  attention,  when  a 
captain  of  the  army,  who  was  stationed  at  Bethle- 
hem as  head  inspector  for  the  Ordnance  Department, 
brought  in  a  certain  colonel  from  the  Watervliet 
Arsenal,  to  renew  a  former  acquaintance  with  Mr. 


FREDERICK  WINSL  OV/  TAYLOR 


59 


m 


Taylor.  All  three  gentlemen  were  enthusiastic 
golfers,  so  that  the  conversation  soon  turned  to  this 
subject,  which  was  kept  up,  not  only  until  the  colonel 
had  been  escorted  to  his  carriage,  but  long  after  Mr. 
Taylor  and  the  captain  had  returned  to  the  oflSce, 
where  by  this  time  some  three  other  subordinates, 
besides  myself,  were  waiting  to  see  Mr.  Taylor.  I 
finally  got  so  impatient  that  I  broke  in  on  the  two 
gentlemen  with  a:  "Hang  your  golf  talk,  gentlemen, 
it  has  lasted  long  enough.  I  am  here  to  do  business 
and  want  attention." 

The  effect  of  this  was  about  the  same  as  a  thunder- 
bolt from  a  clear  sky,  and  sent  the  captain  out  of  the 
door  and  Mr.  Taylor  back  to  his  desk,  where  I  sat 
down  with  him  to  transact  the  business  in  hand. 
Before  starting  in,  however,  I  felt  that  a  humble 
apology  for  my  extreme  rudeness  was  in  order,  but 
Mr.  Taylor  waived  it  aside  by  a  most  kindly  pat  on 
my  back,  at  the  same  time  saying,  "Mr.  Barth,  it 
is  all  right.  There  are  times  when  it  is  a  subordi- 
nate's duty  to  call  a  superior's  attention  to  his  duty, 
and  that  is  all  you  did."  I  can  recall  a  number  of 
superiors  I  have  had  in  the  past,  that  would  have  all 
but  fired  me,  if  they  had  been  in  Mr.  Taylor's  place. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  lesson  taught  some  of  us 
by  Mr.  Taylor,  is  the  value  of  confidence  in  general 
principles  and  general  experiences. 

I  have  thus  never  forgotten  the  absolute  confidence 
with  which  he  some  twelve  years  ago  assured  a 
certain  prominent  manufacturer  that  the  recent 
favorable  reports  the  latter  had  received  about 
greatly  improved  conditions  in  a  plant  in  another 
city  in  which  he  was  interested,  could  not  represent 


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60       FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

the  facts;  it  would,  he  said,  in  the  very  nature 
of  the  conditions  that  were  known  to  have  existed 
there  a  few  months  earher,  take  almost  as  many- 
years  to  bring  about  the  alleged  improvements. 
This  subsequently  proved  to  be  the  case. 

His  faith  in  scientific  methods  and  the  immutable- 
ness  of  natural  laws  and  general  principles,  he  only 
shared,  of  course,  with  numberless  scientists  of  his 
day,  but  as  a  practical  engineer  and  manager  he 
had  had  experiences  that  do  not  come  within  the 
range  of  the   professional  scientist. 

Another  of  Mr.  Taylor's  most  striking  character- 
istics was  his  great  appreciation  of  those  of  his 
superiors  of  former  times  who  had  taught  him 
valuable  lessons.  For  some  of  those  he  did  not 
entertain  a  high  general  regard,  —  but  with  a  fine 
discrimination  he  would  laud  the  good  he  had  seen 
in  them,  and  draw  his  lesson  from  it.  And  as  regards 
seeing  the  good  in  other  people,  the  development  of 
his  character,  as  I  had  the  rare  opportunity  to  notice 
it,  resembled  what  I  once  heard  a  lecturer  say  about 
Abraham  Lincoln.  *'His  heart  grew  more  and 
more  tender  as  the  years  went  by,  until  just  before 
his  death  he  was  ever  ready  to  see  excuses  for  the 
behavior  of  even  those  of  his  disciples  who  were  not 
as  loyal  as  they  might  be  to  the  great  ideals  for  which 
he  had  worked  so  faithfully  and  disinterestedly.'' 

Great  was  his  work  viewed  from  only  the  material 
side:  greater,  by  far,  were  the  ideals  that  prompted 
it,  and  which  he  left  to  sustain  us,  as  they  did  him, 
through  the  numerous  difficulties,  large  and  small, 
which  the  practical  continuation  of  his  work  carries 
with  it. 


mf0Wf:^-'^'^*^ft^. 


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I    li 


BY  HENRY  L.  GANTT 

IT  was  my  good  fortune  to  be  associated  with 
Frederick  Winslow  Taylor  when,   as  a  young 
man,  he  was  developing   those   characteristics 
that  were  to  make  him  famous. 

/  His  reputation  does  not  depend  upon  the  fact 
that  he  designed  and  built  the  most  successful  big 
steam  hammer  in  the  world,  or  that  he  developed  a 
method  of  treating  tool  steel  that  trebled  its  cutting 
power,  or  that  he  determined  the  laws  of  cutting 
metals,  or  even  that  he  was  the  father  of  scientific 
management.  These  were  incidents  in  his  career, 
and  only  the  logical  results  of  his  methods.  At  an 
\  early  date  he  realized  how  much  of  the  world's 
^  work  was  based  on  precedent  or  opinion,  and  under- 
took to  base  all  his  actions  on  knowledge  and  fact. 
Endowed  naturally  with  untiring  energy  and  a 
wonderfully  analytical  mind,  he  concentrated  all 
the  power  of  that  combination  on  the  problem  of 
determining  the  facts  he  needed.  He  was  interested 
in  what  had  been  done  mainly  for  the  indication  it 
gave  of  what  could  be  done.  His  mind  was  con- 
tinually on  the  future,  and  to  him  the  great  value 
of  knowledge  was  that  it  enabled  him  to  anticipate 
that  future.  Accurate  in  his  calculations  and  logi- 
cal in  his  conclusions,  he  never  failed  to  put  his 
trust  in  the  results  of  his  investigations,  and  often 


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62 


FREDERICK  WIN  SLOW  TAYLOR 


accomplished  what  was  considered  by  others  to  be 
impossible.  Indeed  it  was  those  problems  that  had 
been  given  up  by  others  as  impossible  of  exact 
solution  that  it  was  his  delight  to  attack,  and  it  is 
surprising  to  how  many  of  them  he  found  that 
solution. 

Balked  at  the  outset  of  his  career  as  foreman  of 
the  machine  shop  of  the  Midvale  Steel  Company 
by  the  lack  of  knowledge  of  cutting  steel  which  then 
existed,  he  set  himself  the  task  of  suppyling  that 
lack.  The  first  three  years  were  spent  in  finding  out 
how  to  study  the  problem;  and,  although  the  work 
was  not  completed  for  over  twenty  years,  it  is  a 
fact  that  when  I  entered  his  employ  in  1887  the 
fundamental  laws  had  already  been  approximately 
determined.  Subsequent  investigations  served  to 
confirm  what  had  been  done  and  to  correct  minor 
inaccuracies. 

At  Bethlehem  he  became  so  interested  in  deter- 
mining these  laws  exactly,  that  it  is  doubtful  if 
he  ever  realized  how  wonderfully  accurate  his  earlier 
results  really  were.  To  be  sure,  much  more  ground 
was  covered  in  the  subsequent  work,  but  as  an  in- 
vestigation into  the  laws  of  cutting  metals,  his  work 
as  a  young  man  at  the  Midvale  Steel  Works  stands 
out,  to  my  mind,  as  far  the  more  remarkable  achieve- 
ment. In  his  subsequent  work  he  followed  strictly 
the  methods  he  had  previously  perfected. 

One  of  the  by-products  of  this  investigation  was 
the  discovery  of  the  Taylor-White  process  of  treat- 
ing high-speed  steel,  the  far  reaching  effect  of  which 
has  not  only  not  yet  been  realized,  but  cannot  be 
until  all  the  other  problems  entering  into  machine 


sat 


«   ,1 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR        63 

shop  management  have  been  given  the  same  kind 
of  study  as  has  been  given  the  cutting  of  metals. 

The  least  heard  of,  but,  to  my  mind,  his  most 
daring  feat,  was  the  design  of  the  great  hammer  of 
the  Midvale  Steel  Co.,  which  kept  its  alignment 
by  the  elasticity  of  its  parts  which  yielded  to  the 
force  of  a  foul  blow  and  returned  exactly  to  their 
former  position.  Dependence  upon  the  principle  of 
elasticity  enabled  him  to  build  a  hammer  which, 
for  its  weight,  had  far  greater  power  than  any  other 
hammer  that  had  ever  been  built.  All  previous 
hammers  of  this  class  had  been  designed  to  keep  their 
alignment  by  great  mass  and  stiffness,  and  it  took 
a  bold  man  to  throw  precedent  aside  when  the  stake 
was  such  a  large  one.  I  do  not  know  of  any  more 
daring  or  successful  piece  of  engineering  construction. 

The  fact  that  he  became  a  pioneer  in  another 
field  is  not  surprising,  for  he  was  destined  to  be  a 
leader  in  whatever  field  his  activities  took  him. 

It  seems  quite  likely  that  if  he  had  adhered  to 
what  was  then  known  as  strictly  engineering,  he 
would  have  made  even  a  greater  reputation  than  he 
achieved  in  the  field  of  management. 

The  work  by  which  he  is  best  known,  however,  is 
not  what  was  then  regarded  as  strictly  engineering. 
Strange  as  it  may  seem,  although  much  knowledge 
and  thought  had  been  devoted  to  the  design  of  ma- 
chinery and  apparatus,  but  little  study  had  been 
given  to  the  possibilities  of  the  men  who  were  to 
operate  that  machinery.  Even  to  this  day  many 
engineers  consider  their  work  done  when  they  have 
designed  and  built  and  demonstrated  the  possi- 
bilities of  a  piece  of  apparatus.     They  seem  to  feel 


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64        FREDERICK     WINSLOVV     TAYLOR 

that  the  efficient  operation  of  it  is  not  in  their  prov- 
ince. Mr.  Taylor  felt  otherwise.  To  him  perfec- 
tion in  design  was  worthless  without  efficiency  in 
operation,  and  at  an  early  date  he  turned  his  atten- 
tion to  the  efficient  utilization  of  human  effort. 

In  this  work  he  used  the  same  method  that  had 
already  brought  him  success,  namely,  to  disregard 
opinions,  from  whatever  source,  unless  substan- 
tiated by  facts.  Where  facts  were  not  available, 
and  they  seldom  were,  he  used  the  scientific  method 
for  their   determination. 

When  I  went  to  the  Midvale  Steel  Works  in  1887, 
he  had  already  made  considerable  progress  in  this 
work,  and  had  fully  developed  the  methods  of  detail 
analysis  and  study  which  later  became  the  origin 
of  scientific  management. 

He  recognized  as  an  economic  as  well  as  an  ethical 
fact,  that  the  employer  should  always  consider  the 
interests  of  the  employee.  Endowed  with  vast 
energy  and  great  ability  to  work,  he  recognized 
the  advantage  such  qualities  would  be  to  others, 
and  offered  high  wages  to  those  who  would  develop 
them.  That  he  was  correct  is  shown  by  the  remark- 
able success  which  has  been  attained  by  all  who 
profited  by  his  training. 

If  I  were  asked  to  point  out  his  most  prominent 
characteristic,  I  should  say  that  it  was  his  ability 
to  prosecute  the  task  he  had  set  himself  regardless 
of  the  lack  of  sympathy  of  his  friends  and  the  criti- 
cism of  his  enemies.  Having  determined  on  a  course 
of  action  he  pursued  it  regardless  of  consequences; 
and  inasmuch  as  such  courses  were  planned  by  a 
clear  head  and  followed  with  an  iron  will,  he  often 


*«*ai|Wi8^Jw«*»r 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR        65 

accomplished  results  far  in  excess  of  what  even  his 
most  earnest  supporters  thought  possible. 

To  end  here  would  not  complete  our  picture.  He 
was  not  the  steam  roller  that  some  people  like  to 
represent  him,  but  he  did  believe  that  a  strenuous 
life  was  the  life  worth  while,  and  that  it  not  only 
brought  more  financial  compensation,  but  that  it 
added  to  the  usefulness  and  happiness  of  men.  He 
believed : 

"That  when  the  day  is  over  and  your  work  is  all  well  done, 
That  when  the  campaign's  ended,  that  when  the  battle's 

won, 
Then  friendship  keen,  and  memory  of  many  happy  days 
Bring  the  glorious  satisfaction  that  a  life  of  action  pays." 

He  had  still  another  side:  People  said  he  made 
work  of  his  play.  True,  work  was  his  joy.  Not 
the  routine  that  could  be  done  by  anybody,  but  the 
work  that  others  had  been  unable  to  do.  An  un- 
solved problem  was  a  constant  challenge  to  him,  and 
he  attacked  it  with  a  thoroughness  and  an  eagerness 
that  it  is  hard  to  comprehend.  The  fact  that  for 
several  years  he  continually  worked  at  problems 
that  brought  him  no  financial  return,  is  evidence 
that  he  had  reached  the  stage  when  — 

"We  shall  work  for  an  age  at  a  sitting, 

And  never  be  tired  at  all; 
And  no  one  shall  work  for  money. 

And  no  one  shall  work  for  fame; 
But  each  for  the  joy  of  working. 

And  only  the  Master  shall  praise, 

And  only  the  Master  shall  blame." 


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STAGES   BETWEEN  MIDVALE  AND 

BETHLEHEM 

BY  SANFORD  E.  THOMPSON 

THERE  stands  out  vividly  in  my  mind  an 
occasion  some  twenty-five  years  ago  when 
a  messenger  pulled  me  out  of  bed  at  three 
o'clock  one  winter  morning  to  go  down  to  the  pulp 
mill.  I  was  met  there  by  Mr.  Taylor.  "  Mr.  Thomp- 
son, I  told  you  to  have  an  idler  built  for  every  belt 
in  this  mill.  Why  was  this  not  done?  I  don't 
want  any  excuses  —  I  won't  have  any  excuses  — 
why  wasn't  it  done?"  This  was  one  of  my  first 
lessons  in  the  training  which  every  man  received 
who  came  under  Mr.  Taylor's  direction  in  those 
days.  Over  and  over  again  we  would  hear  the 
requirement  to  **Get  there.  It  doesn't  make  any 
difference  how  you  get  there,  but  get  there."  And 
again,  '*  Don't  wait  for  anything."  And  we  mar- 
veled and  still  marvel  how  he^  ft^^d  remenib^L  the 
numerous  instructions  he  gave  us  all  and  call  us  to 
account  in  his  extraordinarily  emphatic  manner  for 
the  least  omission. 

My  personal  friendship  with  Mr.  Taylor  really 
began  as  a  result  of  my  insistence  on  repeating  a 
certain  unsatisfactory  test.  This  test  required  some 
forty  hours  of  continuous  application.  Mr.  Taylor 
was  always  on  the  lookout  for  traits  in  others  which 
embraced  this  principle  of  carrying  a  thing  through 
to  its  conclusion. 


Ili^iS'WiW''!'*''^'-'****'^'^ 


^*^<^mm*mmmmi 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR       OJ 

It  was  always  his  plan  to  establish  system  even  in 
details.  He  would  say,  **If  a  belt  breaks  once,  it 
is  excusable.  If  the  same  belt  breaks  again  from 
the  same  cause  it  is  absolutely  inexcusable.  A 
routine  plan  of  inspection  or  repairs  should  have 
been  adopted  to  prevent  the  second  break."  And 
is  not  this  one  explanation  for  his  various  accom- 
plishments? His  numerous  patents,  his  exhaustive 
researches,  his  individual  attainments  in  many 
fields,  all  had  the  express  purpose  of  overcoming 
some  practical  difficulty  by  improving  the  method 
so  as  to  prevent  recurrence. 

This  energy  and  thoroughness  characterized  his 
services  as  general  manager  of  two  large  sulphite 
pulp  mills,  one  of  them  in  Maine  and  the  other  in 
Wisconsin,  during  the  years  1888  to  1893. 

He  was  selected  for  this  position  when  in  Midvale 
by  a  group  of  capitalists  who,  as  government  oflScials 
in  the  War  Department,  had  noted  Mr.  Taylor's 
accomplishments  in  the  manufacture  of  war  materials 
at  Midvale.  In  the  construction  of  the  mills  he 
introduced  large  quantities  of  special  machinery 
which  he  designed  himself.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  he 
considered  not  the  question  of  whether  a  certain 
thing  had  been  used  before,  but  he  was  always 
seeking  out  a  method  or  a  machine  which  would 
accomplish  the  work  in  hand  regardless  of  precedent. 

In  one  of  the  pulp  mills  he  applied  piece  work 
to  all  the  complicated  operations  of  manufacture 
by  his  method  of  elementary  rate  fixing,  and  this 
resulted  within  18  months  in  doubling  the  output. 

Leaving  this  company  in  1893,  he  devoted  his  time 
for  the  next  ten  years  to  the  introduction  of  book- 


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68        FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

keeping  and  of  management  methods  into  various 
plants  in  the  East  and  Central  West. 

This  period,  from  the  time  of  leaving  Midvale 
until  he  completed  his  work  at  South  Bethlehem, 
was  in  a  sense  the  most  important  of  his  life.  During 
this  time,  as  a  result  of  his  practical  contact  with 
managers  and  workingmen,  he  developed  the  prin- 
ciples which  have  been  designated  and  accepted  as 
scientific    management. 

Coming  from  Midvale,  we  recognize  the  compe- 
tent, hustling,  able,  inventive  engineer.  In  his 
notable  paper,  ''A  Piece  Rate  System,''  read  before 
the  Mechanical  Engineers  in  1895,  we  find  the  first 
presentation  of  what  he  then  termed  "elementary- 
rate  fixing,"  that  is,  the  determination  of  the  proper 
time  for  doing  a  piece  of  work  by  unit  time  study. 
But  we  find  in  this  paper  scarcely  a  reference  to 
the  broader  subject  of  management  or  scientific 
standardization. 

In  his  paper,  **  Notes  on  Belting,"  however,  pre- 
sented two  years  earlier,  in  1893,  the  principles  of 
standardization  and  of  scientific  research  are  clearly 
brought  out  in  the  development  of  definite  laws, 
and  of  a  definite  system  for  handling  the  complex 
problem  of  belting  —  the  adoption  of  the  scientific 
method  —  the  method  which  eliminates  from  a  test 
all  variables  but  one,  the  method  which  develops 
a  problem  step  by  step  until  the  attainment  of 
definite  laws. 

The  principle  of  unit  times,  which  is  now  recog- 
nized as  forming  the  basis  for  the  accurate  analysis 
of  labor  operations,  was  completely  developed  while 
at  Midvale.    During  that  same  period  also  were  made 


'f^:^^* 


A^m^^'  ,r.ff*<i!»as^!^^?^»W|T 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR       69 

the  belting  tests  and  the  beginning  of  various  other 
researches  aiming  toward  standardization  of  methods. 

Not,  however,  until  the  publication  of  "Shop 
Management"  in  1903,  is  seen  the  development  of 
the  complete  system  based  not  on  theory,  not  on 
opinion,  but  as  a  result  of  this  broad  experience  in 
operation  gained  by  his  contact  with  manufacturing 
plants  all  over  the  country. 

In  other  words,  he  discovered  as  a  result  of  his 
work  —  a  fact  probably  not  yet  fully  appreciated 
even  by  some  of  you  here  to-day  —  that,  in  order 
to  carry  on  these  fundamental  principles  of  ele- 
mentary rate  fixing,  of  unit  times,  there  must  be 
embraced  a  comprehensive  plan  of  organization, 
a  plan  which  includes  the  establishment  of  func- 
tional management,  with  its  planning,  its  routing, 
its  inspecting,  and  its  training  of  employees,  and 
above  all,  with  its  scientific  analysis  of  labor  and 
machine  operations  for  the  purpose  of  standardiza- 
tion of  materials  and  methods. 

As  I  said,  at  the  beginning  of  this  period  we  have 
the  able  engineer:  at  the  close  of  this  period  we  find 
the  scientist,  the  man  who  has  worked  out,  years  in 
advance  of  his  time,  the  application  of  science  to 
the  cutting  of  metals  and  the  application  of  science 
to    industrial    management. 

In  1894,  while  he  was  engaged  in  this  introduction 
of  management  methods,  Mr.  Taylor  proposed  that 
I  take  up  with  him  an  analysis  of  work  in  the  build- 
ing trades  with  a  view  to  publishing  unit  costs  of 
various  kinds  of  construction  work.  This  has 
resulted  in  the  publication  of  the  books  "Concrete, 
Plain  and  Reinforced"  and  "Concrete  Costs,"  and 


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70       FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

material  for  other  works  on  earthwork,  carpentry, 
etc.,  is  nearly  ready  for  publication. 

In  this  writing  of  books  we  find  the  same  fidelity 
to  standards.  He  made  up  his  mind  as  a  result 
of  examination  of  facts  that  a  thing  should  be  done 
in  a  certain  way,  and  in  that  way  it  must  be  done. 
While  Mr.  Taylor  did  comparatively  little  in  the 
direct  preparation  of  these  books,  their  success  is 
due  to  Taylor  principles.  Adopt  standards  —  pre- 
sent simple,  clear-cut  conclusions  —  give  conclusions 
at  the  beginning  of  every  discussion.  And  it  is 
interesting  to  learn  that  these  principles  are  being 
accepted  at  the  present  time  in  engineering  reports 
and  technical  writing  as  a  result  of  a  precedent  thus 
established. 

At  the  time  of  beginning  this  work  I  made  my 
first  visit  to  Mr.  Taylor's  early  home  —  a  quiet 
mansion  located  on  Ross  St.,  Germantown.  I  had 
the  great  privilege  of  meeting  his  father  and  mother, 
an  accomplished  gentleman  and  a  gentlewoman  of 
the  type  rarely  met  with  in  the  younger  generations 
—  in  a  home  where  the  refinement  of  the  family 
life  was  marked.  It  had  been  the  desire  of  these 
parents  to  give  the  son  in  his  young  days  a  broad 
education.  He  spent  three  years,  from  his  thirteenth 
to  his  sixteenth  year,  in  Europe,  traveling  and  study- 
ing music,  art,  and  language.  It  is  suggested  that  his 
acquaintance  with  the  beauties  of  the  Alpine  passes 
developed  a  love  of  nature  which  found  expression 
in  his  design  and  layout  of  the  Boxly  Estate. 

It  was  during  this  association  with  him  that  I  came 
to  understand  his  real  character.  Before  this  I  was 
a  little  in  doubt  as  to  what  was  the  real  Taylor  — 


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FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR       7I 

whether  he  was  essentially  the  taskmaster  that  he 
sometimes  appeared,  that  he  seemed  to  be  when  he 
would  require  the  attainment  of  the  apparently 
insurmountable,  when  he  hauled  us  over  the  coals 
as  man  never  did  before.  But  I  soon  learned  to  dis- 
tinguish the  man  himself  from  certain  qualities  that 
were  not  really  traits  but  were  simply  acquired  by 
him  in  his  usual  thorough  and  scientific  manner 
because  he  saw  that  at  certain  times  and  under 
specific  conditions  a  special  plan  of  action,  a  special 
policy,  a  special  manner  of  speech  was  necessary  in 
order  to  train  his  subordinates  or  in  order  to  accom- 
plish his  purpose.  Always  underneath  was  the 
generosity,  courtesy,  tenderness,  loyalty  to  friends 
and  subordinates,  readiness  to  appreciate  and  com- 
mend, absolute  fairness.  He  went  into  everything 
he  undertook  a  little  farther  —  often  immeasurably 
farther  —  than  anyone  else  had  gone  before.  As 
one  of  his  Midvale  associates  said  to  me,  "Taylor 
is  all  right  except  that  he  is  a  generation  ahead  of 
his  times."  That  remark  was  made  more  than 
twenty  years  ago,  and  the  industrial  world  is  gradu- 
ally growing  up  to  the  level  then  already  attained 
by  him. 

Throughout  my  association  with  Mr.  Taylor  that 
which  stands  out  most  clearly  is  the  definite  accom- 
plishment of  purpose,  not  by  brute  force,  not  by  the 
temporary  and  physical  means  of  sheer  weight  or 
numbers,  not  of  the  type  of  ability  which  built  the 
pyramids,  but  of  the  type  which  produced  the  accu- 
rate mechanism  of  the  watch  —  the  adherence  to  the 
scientific  method,  the  appreciation  of  the  establish- 
ment of  standards. 


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II 


BY  LOUIS   D.   BRANDEIS 

AMIDST  our  rejoicing  over  the  achievements 
of  this  great  man  comes  one  regret.    Those 
for  whom  he  labored   most,   the  working 
people,  are  not  represented  at  this  meeting. 
\Tr  was   Taylor's    purpose    to    make    the    laborer 
worthy  of  his  hire;   to  make  the  hire  worthy  of  the 
f<    laborer;/ to  make  the  standard  of  living  and  the 
conditions  of  working  worthy  to  be  called  American. 
The   American   standard   of  living   implies   a  wage 
adequate  for  proper  housing  and  food  and  clothing, 
for  proper  education  and  recreation,  and  for  insur- 
ance against  those  contingencies  of  sickness,  accident, 
unemployment,    premature    death    or    superannua- 
tion, which  fall  so  heavily  upon  the  working  classes. 
That   standard   implies   hours  of  labor   sufficiently 
short  to  permit  those  who  work  to  perform  also  their 
duties  as  citizens  and  to  share  in  the  enjoyment  of 
life.     That   standard   implies   postponement  of  the 
working  period  to  an  age  which  enables  the  child 
to  develop  into  a  rounded  man  or  woman.     That 
standard  implies  working  conditions  which  are  not 
only   consistent   with   the   demands   of  health   and 
safety,   but  are  also  such  as  may  make  work  for 
others   what   it   was   for  Taylor  —  the   greatest   of 
life's  joys. 


^■•^pt^^mms^mm^M^- 


^im^-wi*iV.*m0^!>im.imvtt0v-'-,  ~ 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR        73 

Taylor  recognized  that  in  order  to  make  such  a 
standard  of  living  and  of  working  attainable  the 
productivity  of  man  must  be  greatly  increased; 
that  waste  must  be  eliminated,  and  particularly  the 
waste  of  effort  which  bears  so  heavily  upon  the 
worker.  And  yet  the  man  who  sought  so  to  develop 
industry  as  to  enable  labor  to  reach  these  higher 
standards  of  working  and  of  living  met,  throughout 
his  life,  widespread  opposition  from  those  whom  he 
sought  particularly  to  help.  Let  all  who  are  under- 
taking to  carry  forward  his  work  recognize  this 
hostility  as  a  fact  of  fundamental  importance;  for 
it  presents  the  main  problem  which  confronts  scien- 
tific management. 

The  causes  of  this  hostility  are  twofold: 

First:  Only  a  part  of  the  necessary  industrial 
truths  have  been  as  yet  developed. 

Second:  The  necessary  assent  to  the  application 
of  these  truths  has  not  been  obtained. 

Taylor  was  a  great  scientist.  He  established  cer- 
tain truths,  fundamental  in  their  nature.  But  he 
obviously  covered  only  a  part  of  the  field  of  inquiry. 
The  truths  he  discovered  must  be  further  developed 
and  they  must  be  supplemented  by,  and  adjusted 
to,  other  truths.  The  greater  productivity  of  labor 
must  be  not  only  attainable,  but  attainable  under 
conditions  consistent  with  the  conservation  of  health, 
the  enjoyment  of  work,  and  the  development  of  the 
individual.  The  facts  iivjhis  regard  have  not  been 
adequately  established.  /In  the  task  of  ascertaining 
whether  proposed  conditions  of  work  do  conform 
to  these  requirements,  the  laborer  himself  should 
take  part.\  He  is  indeed  a  necessary  witness.    Like- 


0) 


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74   FREDERICK  WINSLOW  TAYLOR 

wise,  in  the  task  of  determining^whether  in  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  gain  in  productivity,  justice  is  being 
done  to  the  worker,  the  participation  of  representa- 
tives of  labor  is  indispensable  for  the  inquiry  which 
involves  essentially  the  exercise  of  judgment^ 
Furthermore,  those  who  undertake  to  apply  the 
.  truths  which  Taylor  disclosed  must  remember  that 
in  a  democracy  it  is  not  sufficient  to  have  discovered 
an  industrial  truth,  or  even  the  whole  truth.  Such 
truth  can  rule  only  when  accompanied  by  the  (con- 
sent of  menJ     ?^ 

We  who  nave  had  occasion  to  consider  the  hos- 
tility of  labor  leaders  to  the  introduction  of  scientific 
management  know  that  the  hostility  has  in  large 
measure  been  due  to  misunderstanding.  Much  of 
all  the  waste  which  Taylor  undertook  to  eliminate 
has  no  direct  relation  to  the  specific  functions  of  the 
workingman.  It  deals  with  waste  in  machinery,  in 
supplies,  in  planning,  in  adjustment  of  production 
and  distribution  — matters  in  which  changes  cannot 
possibly  affect  the  workman  injuriously.  And  yet 
we  found  in  many  leaders  of  labor  undiscriminating 
opposition  to  the  whole  of  the  so-called  Taylor 
system.  But  even  if  we  succeed  through  education 
in  eliminating  the  general  hostility  to  the  introduc- 
tion of  scientific  management  in  departments  of  the 
business  which  do  not  directly  affect  labor,  there 
will[remain  a  wide  field  where  the  proposed  changes 
do  directly  affect  labor  in  which  there  is  determined 
oppositioii^A  This  opposition  can  be  overcome  only 
through  securing  the  affirmative  cooperation  of  the 
labor  organizations.^ In  a  democratic  community 
men  who  are  to  be  affected  by  a  proposed  change 


I'll 


VP 


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RFDERICK       WINSLOWTAYLOR       75 

of  conditions  should  be  consulted,  and  the  inno- 
vators must  carry  the  burden  of  convincing  others 
at  each  stage  in  the  ojjpcess  of  change  that  what  is 
being  done  is  right.  ]  Labor  must  have  throughout 
an  opportunity  of  testing  whether  that  which  is 
being  recorded  as  a  truth  is  really  a  truth,  and 
whether  it  is  the  whole  truthj^  Labor  must  not  only 
be  convinced  of  the  industrial  truths  —  which  sci- 
entific management  is  disclosing  —  but  must  also 
be  convinced  that  those  truths  are  consistent  with 
what  may  be  termed  human  truths.  Is  the  greater' 
productivity  attained  clearly  consistent  with  the 
health  of  the  body,  the  mind,  and  the  soul  of  the 
worker?  Is  it  consistent  with  industrial  freedom .^^ 
Is  it  consistent  with  greater  joy  in  work,  and  gen- 
erally in  living?  These  are  questions  which  must 
be  answered  in  the  affirmative,  and  to  the  satisfac- 
tion, not  of  a  few,  merely,  but  of  the  majority  of 
those  to  be  affected. 

To  do  honor  to  Mr.  Taylor  and  worthily  to  carry 
forward  his  work,  those  who  are  his  disciples  and 
those  who  may  become  such  should  recognize  that 
they  have  in  the  solution  of  these  questions  a  call 
upon  them  for  patient  effort  no  less  exacting  and 
severe  than  that  to  which  Taylor  subjected  himself 
when  pursuing  the  law  of  cutting  of  steel.  Every 
step  in  the  installation  and  the  working  out  of  scien- 
tific management  calls  for  such  cooperation  by 
representatives  of  labor.  The  obstacles  to  securing 
it  are  great.  Twenty-five  years  may  be  required  to 
remove  them  fully.  But  whatever  the  time  required 
to  fully  convince  organized  labor,  it  must  be  given, 
if  our  work  is  to  be  well  done.    The  consent  and  the 


,  I 


t;      > 


« 


ll 


If 


76       FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

cooperation  of  the  worker  so  represented  must  be 
secured.  In  no  other  way  can  we  attain  in  full 
measure  the  increase  of  productivity  upon  which 
our  well-being  so  largely  depends.  In  no  other  way 
can  we  secure  that  joy  in  work  without  which  in- 
crease of  productivity  will  not  bring  greater  happi- 
ness. In  no  other  way  can  we  attain  that  freedom 
and  development  of  the  worker  without  which  even 
his  greater  happiness  would  not  promote  the  general 
welfare.  Let  us  work  unremittingly  in  the  spirit  of 
Taylor  to  solve  the  problem  he  left  unsolved.  In 
the  solution  of  that  problem  —  which  in  a  true 
sense  is  the  labor  problem  —  the  greatest  honor 
will  be  done  to  his  memory  and  the  greatest  service 
to  mankind. 


t.v  c.^tet-'...  ■',%.^'vj-I'-^^j  -W*-!*;  »**-awf*^. -^'^».^*v-w|.*8*ii^»3#igisifcrt«##«»Rj»>%s«^^    »m«,.^I».*««,^^j,j^«^„ 


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BY  JAMES  M.   DODGE 

IN  life  he  was  ready  at  all  times  to  explain  and 
to  defend  the  ideals  and  inspiration  he  be- 
queathed to  us,  gathered  from  that  great  inex- 
haustible source  of  inspiration,  the  wisdom  of  the 
universe,  and  in  these  he  was  fearless,  untiring,  just, 
and  considerate.  To  those  seeking  knowledge  he 
was  kind  and  fraternal;  to  those  asking  for  under- 
standing and  opportunity  he  was  generous  and 
sympathetic;  to  those  upon  whom  he  bestowed  his 
affection  and  friendship  he  was  all  that  a  man  could 
be.  No  one  having  talked  with  him  or  seriously 
having  inquired  into  his  work  could  possibly  have 
had  the  slightest  doubt  of  his  honesty  and  earnest- 
ness. The  greatness  of  the  legacy  he  left  us  is 
attested  by  its  expanding  development  and  augmen- 
tation in  value.  He  gave  it  to  us  freely,  without 
restricting  clauses  or  perplexing  codicils.  The  wills 
of  men  inscribed  on  parchment  may  be  broken  and 
the  fancied  hopes  of  the  testator  frustrated  through 
legal  quibble  based  upon  trifling  errors;  but  the  in- 
tellectual will  of  Dr.  Frederick  Winslow  Taylor, 
devising  to  all  mankind  the  results  of  his  lifework, 
can  never  be  broken,  because  he  has  inscribed  him- 
self upon  earnest,  thankful,  and  affectionate  hearts 
by  his  priceless  bequests  to  all  of  us.  Thus  we  may 
have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  take  him  for  all  in  all, 
"we  shall  not  look  upon  his  like  again." 


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4 


ADDRESSES 

AT  MR.  TAYLOR'S   HOME,  "  BOXLY," 

CHESTNUT  HILL,   PHILADELPHIA, 

PA.,  OCTOBER   23,    191 5 


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^:V^^!mgiiMj^m^v.'^i^0,#^i4!mM»mmi^=> 


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^^wy^Tf-  ^^y^^--ygpm^f^:3^. , 


Iff 


BY  ADMIRAL  CHAUNCEY  F.  GOODRICH 

IT  would  be  sheer  presumption  on  the  part  of  a 
plain  sailor  to  add  to  the  glowing  eulogies  pro- 
nounced last  night  on  the  character  and  achieve- 
ments of  Mr.  Taylor  by  men  whose  knowledge  of 
their  subjects  and  intimate  relations  with  him  are 
only  rivaled  by  the  eloquence  of  their  tributes. 

Bear  with  me  for  a  few  moments  and  pardon,  I 
pray  you,  the  necessarily  personal  nature  of  my 
remarks  while  I  touch  briefly  upon  certain  of 
Mr.  Taylor's  services  to  the  National  Government, 
some  of  which  are  known  to  but  few  individuals, 
hardly  a  dozen  in  all. 

Although  I  had  met  him  in  1885,  it  was  not  until 
1889  that  I  became  closely  connected  with  him 
under  the  circumstances  referred  to  by  Mr.  Thomp- 
son last  evening.  Out  of  this  association  grew  a 
friendship  only  terminated  by  Mr.  Taylor's  death. 

I  venture  to  call  it  intimate,  although  it  is  quite 
possible  that,  through  pride,  I  use  too  strong  a 
term.  At  least  it  gave  me  the  courage  to  go  to  him 
for  help  when  there  fell  to  my  lot  to  discharge  as 
difficult  and  vexatious  a  duty  as  can  well  be  ima- 
gined. Yet  this  duty  was  of  my  own  seeking.  Why.? 
You  may  well  ask. 

The  answer  is  that  it  involved  a  great  work  and 
countless  knotty  problems  which  to  do  and  to  solve 
offered  an  opportunity  to  benefit  the  Navy,  to  which 


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II 


II 


82 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 


I  have  devoted  practically  all  of  my  life  and  surely 
all  of  my  best  thought  and  most  earnest  endeavor. 

Huge  as  were  the  obstacles  in  the  path,  I  felt  con- 
fident that  with  Mr.  Taylor's  wise  counsel  and  vast 
experience  at  my  disposition  a  start  at  least  might 
be  made. 

In  1907  I  was  sent  to  the  New  York  Navy  Yard 
as  Commandant,  to  find  an  industrial  situation  which 
beggars  description.  Within  the  yard  walls  were  no 
less  than  five  separate,  distinct,  unrelated  plants,  each 
seeking  to  be  wholly  sufficient  in  itself.  Each 
plant  was  subject  to  orders  from  one  of  the  divisions 
of  the  Navy  Department  known  as  "Bureaux" — ■ 
which  avoided  as  far  as  possible  even  calling  upon 
another  Bureau's  plant  for  assistance.  When  I 
say  that  there  were  five  blacksmith  shops,  five  car- 
penter shops,  five  pattern  shops,  five  sets  of  machine 
shops,  etc.,  and  that  in  substantially  every  case  one 
shop  could  do  all  the  work  of  the  yard,  I  shall  have 
given  you  a  glimpse  at  the  situation.  Here  was  a 
chance  to  effect  enormous  economies  through  the 
obvious  course  of  consolidating  all  work  of  one 
kind  under  one  roof  and  suppressing  plants  not 
actually  needed. 

Naturally  I  turned  to  Mr.  Taylor  for  advice  — 
freely  given.  And  I  may  say  here  that  I  never  ven- 
tured to  suggest  to  the  Navy  Department  any  change 
or  reform  until  the  whole  matter  was  threshed  out 
between  him  and  me. 

It  was  some  time  before  the  first  move  was  made, 
because  I  wished  first  to  acquaint  myself  thoroughly 
with  the  conditions  and  not  — so  to  speak  — go  off 
at  halfcock. 


f 

I; 


^'^'i^>H.    -*•      ~^^,': 


■    '--r-  **t.*^  '-V*       -'•«*'    "S*-      W*-^' 


?i^  ^^^l^:\'.'f 


iHjHE  ■*i&JSi!'.«fl»SJ!,jJ?esWrt 


"**"«^rO!w**^  ^^^^^r^-i' 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR       83 

At  once  I  discovered  that  the  time  I  needed  for 
personal  investigation  was  denied  me  by  the  absurd 
regulation  which  required  all  oflScial  correspondence 
to  pass  through  my  hands.  Even  the  heads  of  yard 
departments  were  forbidden  to  communicate  di- 
rectly with  each  other.  Soon  after  assuming  com- 
mand of  the  yard  I  read  a  letter  somewhat  to  this 
effect:  **For  the  information  of  the  Equipment 
OflScer  the  Naval  Constructor  reports  that  steam 
launch  #269  is  ready  to  receive  its  wheel  ropes." 

You  see  the  Naval  Constructor  could  build  the 
launch,  but  the  moving  of  its  wheel  ropes  belonged  to 
another  department. 

I  called  in  my  chief  clerk  and  asked  why  in  thun- 
der the  Naval  Constructor  was  bothering  me  with 
such  pifl3e,  "why  did  he  not  notify  the  Equipment 
OflScer  direct.?"  "It's  against  the  regulation  of  the 
Navy  and  of  the  yard,  sir,"  and  such  was  the  fact. 

So  I  came  over  to  Boxly,  told  Mr.  Taylor  of  this 
preposterous,  inconceivable  weaving  of  red  tape,  and 
asked  him  how  I  could  cut  it.  He  replied  that  the 
head  of  an  industrial  establishment  should  never 
even  see  the  trivial  or  routine  things  —  that  noth- 
ing but  the  unusual  and  exceptional  should  meet 
his  eyes  —  or  questions  of  extreme  importance,  etc. 

After  more  talk  and  after  receiving  invaluable 
hints,  back  I  went  to  New  York  and  issued  an  order 
that  "as  an  experiment"  all  subordinates  under  my 
command  should  communicate  directly  with  each 
other  on  matters  having  my  approval,  but  that  they 
were  forbidden  to  initiate  new  subjects  without  my 
knowledge  and  consent.  The  effect  on  my  labors 
was  instantaneous  and  immense.     The  experiment 


I 


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i  I 


84 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 


proved  a  great  success,  and  when  reported  to  the 
Navy  Department  its  methods  were  adopted  for  the 
entire  service. 

It  thus  came  to  pass  that  from  having  to  sign  my 
name  from  three  hundred  to  eight  hundred  times  a 
day  on  wholly  perfunctory  indorsements,  chiefly 
"Respectfully  forwarded,"  about  forty  times  were 
found  to  suffice,  and  these  signatures  were  to  docu- 
ments that  required  my  careful  consideration. 

Thus  were  the  chains  that  bound  me  to  my  desk 
shattered  and  opportunity  afforded  me  to  go  around 
the  yard  and  investigate  conditions  and  methods. 

The  nation  was  fortunate  during  this  period  in 
having  at  the  Navy  Department,  first  as  Assistant 
and  then  as  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  the  Hon.  Tru- 
man H.  Newberry  —  a  man  of  extensive  business 
experience,  clear  mind,  and  exceptional  courage. 
Mr.  Newberry  welcomed  any  and  all  suggestions  for 
the  improvement  of  affairs  at  the  navy  yards  with 
which  he  was  especially  charged,  and  with  singular 
fidelity  to  the  public  good  he  ignored  the  protests 
of  the  politicians,  who  loudly  complained  of  the  work 
of  navy-yard  reform,  and  he  furnished  that  indis- 
pensable factor,  departmental  authority,  without 
which  nothing  could  be  done. 

It  is  only  fair  to  say  that  Mr.  Newberry  himself 
initiated  a  number  of  reforms  —  only  one  of  which, 
however,  was  not  preceded  by  a  conference  with 
me.  This  exception  was  due  to  a  kind  and  generous 
consideration.  He  foresaw  that  it  would  occasion 
violent  opposition  and  recrimination.  These  he 
sought  to  take  to  himself,  thus  sparing  me  from 
attack. 


Iff 


'1 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 


85 


And  I  should  also  remark  that  he  knew  of  my  close 
relations  with  Mr.  Taylor,  having  been  assured  by 
me  that  I  would  propose  no  scheme  to  him  that  had 
not  been  previously  discussed  between  Mr.  Taylor 
and  myself.  - 

Out   of  the    countless    instances   that    might   be  \ 
'  quoted   I   will  only  mention  one  to   illustrate   the 
value  of  the  latter's  advice. 

One  day  there  came  to  my  office  a  printed  sched- 
ule of  the  quantities  of  tool  steel  required  for  the 
ensuing  year  in  but  one  department  of  the  various 
navy  yards.  A  certain  yard  alone,  by  the  way, 
asked  for  over  forty  tons  of  this  material.  This  will 
give  you  some  idea  of  the  total  amount  for  all  the 
yards. 

I  noticed  that  each  yard  demanded  a  particular 
kind,  mentioned  by  brand.  Using  fictitious  names, 
let  us  say  that  Portsmouth  wanted  "Ajax,"  Boston 
**Acme,"  New  York  "Alpha,"  and  so  on  down  the 
line,  each  certifying  that  none  other  would  suffice. 
At  once  I  posted  over  to  Boxly  and  explained  the 
case.  "You  are  paying  for  a  brand  —  not  for  the 
steel,"  said  Mr.  Taylor.  "Make  your  own  speci- 
fications and  open  the  bids  to  all  manufacturers." 
To  make  a  long  story  short,  I  suggested  to  the  Navy 
Department  that  a  "Tool  Steel  Board"  should  be 
formed  to  go  into  the  question.  My  recommenda- 
tion was  adopted.  Through  Mr.  Taylor's  help  the 
Navy  began  buying  its  tool  steel  —  not  by  brand 
but  by  its  own  specifications.  The  very  first  pur- 
chase of  high  speed  tool  steel  brought  the  price  down 
from  $1.25  a  pound  to  thirty  odd  cents;  and  the 
Commandant    of   the    Washington    yard,    with    its 


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86       FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

great  gun  shops,  informed  me  that  the  new  steel 
did  one-third  more  work  than  the  old. 

Mr.  Taylor's  independence  is  to  be  seen  in  this 
episode.  He  was  summoned  to  Washington  by  one 
of  Mr.  Newberry's  successors  and  asked  to  help 
improve  matters.  As  he  did  not  like  or  admire 
this  official,  he  told  the  latter  frankly  that  he  was 
ready  to  do  everything  in  his  power  to  further  the 
interests  of  the  Navy,  but  that  was  his  only  motive, 
since  he  refused  point  blank  to  be  considered  as 
anxious  to  contribute  in  any  way  to  the  success  of 
that  gentleman's  administration,  something  in  which 
he  had  no  interest  whatsoever. 

I  tell  this  story  to  illustrate  Mr.  Taylor's  absolute 
integrity  in  both  thought  and  deed. 

He  would  not  permit  any  incorrect  inference  to 
be  drawn  from  his  willingness  to  serve  his  country. 
He  could  not  lie,  and  he  hated  a  liar  with  a  hatred 
expressed  in  his  own  picturesque  terms. 

To  those  fortunate  individuals  who  won  his 
esteem  and  confidence  he  gave  freely  from  the  rich 
treasury  of  a  rare  nature,  exceptional  ability,  and, 
vast  experience. 

Gladly  do  I  acknowledge  my  own  indebtedness 
in  these  respects. 

I  regard  it  as  a  blessed  privilege  to  be  able  to 
count  myself  among  the  close  friends  of  Frederick 
Winslow  Taylor. 


\-#"«^iSi*^ip^-»- 


BY  HAROLD  VAN  DU  ZEE 


I  HAVE  been  asked  to  talk  a  few  moments  on 
the  very  unusual  and  remarkable  experiments 
on  the  cultivation  of  red  fescue  grass  that  Dr. 
Taylor  has  carried  on  here  for  several  years,  and  in 
which  it  was  my  privilege  and  good  fortune  to  assist. 

Some  thirteen  years  ago  Dr.  Taylor  purchased 
these  grounds  and  at  once,  in  his  usual  thorough 
way,  began  planning  the  home  you  now  see,  with 
every  detail  well  adapted  to  the  normal  enjoyment 
of  his  family  and  friends. 

Among  the  things  thought  desirable  was,  of  course, 
a  putting  green,  on  which  to  improve  an  already 
well  established  skill.  Now  the  making  of  a  putting 
green  was  not,  at  that  time,  thought  to  be  a  task  of 
unusual  scientific  diflftculty,  so  ordinarily  well  used 
methods  of  soiling  and  cultivation  were  used  in  the 
full  expectation  of  a  satisfactory  green. 

The  green  could  not  be  used  the  first  season, — 
it  was  too  tender.  The  second  season  it  was  still 
tender,  and  the  third  season  it  had  failed  badly  in 
this  severe  climate. 

For  several  years  Dr.  Taylor  worked  with  all  his 
ingenuity  to  make  the  green  a  success.  The  in- 
jured places  were  cut  out  and  refilled  with  a  differ- 
ent soil,  then  seeded  with  much  care.  At  another 
time,  when  the  grass  seemed  below  par,  holes  were 
punched  with  a  steel  dibble  and  filled  with  bone 


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88        FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

meal,  topped  with  a  germinating  mixture.  Other 
carefully  thought  out  efforts  were  made  to  get  good 
grass.  All  these  repairs  were  carefully  watched,  but 
the  watching  did  not  help,  and  it  became  apparent 
that  all  the  ingenuity  was  going  into  the  grass  and 
none  to  putting. 

You  who  have  been  intimate  with  Dr.  Taylor  will 
understand  that  when  something  was  found  that 
could  not  be  done,  that  was  the  very  thing  that 
would  be  done  and,  moreover,  every  one  w^ould  help 
do  it.  You  all  are  familiar  with  the  history  of  the 
slide  rule.  Here,  when  these  grounds  were  pur- 
chased, was  a  large  quantity  of  box  hedge  over  a 
hundred  years  old,  but  in  a  very  untidy  and  useless 
condition.  If  this  could  be  transplanted  into  an 
orderly  design  for  a  garden,  it  would  be  a  prize. 
Experts  declared  that  no  efforts  to  transplant  would 
succeed;  intimate  friends  made  sport  of  the  idea 
—  money  thrown  away  and  all  that.  Yet  eleven 
hundred  feet  of  the  box  was  transplanted  without 
losing  a  bush,  and  you  all  have  seen  the  result. 

It  seemed  that  making  a  satisfactory  putting 
green  had  become  another  of  the  things  that  could  not 
be  done.  So  with  the  failure  of  the  efforts  at  repair 
began  a  work  that  grew  to  a  long  series  of  unusual 
and  interesting  experiments  to  make  grass  of  fine 
quality  grow  in  this  unfavorable  climate.  There 
came  a  fixed  determination  to  learn  how  to  make  a 
putting  green  that  would  satisfy  the  most  exacting 
requirements  of  any  golfer,  and  at  any  season. 
And  Dr.  Taylor  began  planning  a  series  of  tests  for 
an  investigation  of  this  baffling  subject. 

I   shall   never   forget   from   how   simple   a   basic 


-,  M  'Kt^.A     '*(.'»    -. 


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^"^^1^ 


1 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR        89 

statement  has  grown  an  unfinished  work  covering 
several  years  of  unceasing  effort.  Dr.  Taylor's 
first  explanation  to  Mr.  Bender  and  myself  was  that 
grass  needed  nourishment,  root  space,  ventilation, 
and  moisture.  For  the  best  meeting  of  these  four 
requirements  there  have  been  carried  out  *many 
hundreds  of  growing  tests,  and  thousands  of  tests  of 
materials,  relating  to  their  physical  properties, 
source,  cost,  etc.  It  is  certain  that  Mr.  Sanford  E. 
Thompson  had  a  lively  time  in  his  laboratories  dur- 
ing the  early  part  of  the  work,  and  doubtless  can 
measure  his  records  by  the  cubic  feet.  My  own 
files  contain  several  pounds,  and  perhaps  nearly  a 
hundred  plans,  of  tests  and  experiments.  By  this 
it  is  easy  to  see  that  even  if  the  four  basic  require- 
ments appeared  simple,  there  was  great  diflSculty 
in  meeting  them.  Nevertheless,  there  was  to  be 
no  stopping  till  they  were  met  in  some  way. 

A  brief  account  of  an  earlier  effort  made  by  Dr. 
Taylor  to  have  a  putting  green  may  serve  to  show 
what  really  great  effort  was  put  into  the  work  here. 
In  1901,  at  his  former  home,  a  very  rough  piece  of 
lawn  was  converted  into  a  green  in  a  somewhat  novel 
way.  It  was  thoroughly  soaked  until  almost  marshy; 
then  the  rough  places  were  pounded  down  to  a  true 
surface  with  broad  iron  rammers.  Thousands  of 
small  holes  were  made  in  this  smooth  surface  by 
means  of  large  nails  fastened  point  down  on  the 
under  side  of  a  piece  of  board.  The  holes  were  then 
carefully  filled  with  a  germinating  mixture,  the 
green  was  watered  regularly  and  fed  twice  a  season. 
The  result  was  the  possession  of  a  fair  green,  accord- 
ing to  the  requirements  of  that  time. 


.>• 


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I 


90 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 


Here  at  Boxly  a  much  better  grade  of  green  was 
thought  necessary,  and  the  lack  of  success  in  the  first 
years  of  effort  became  a  strong  stimulus  to  find  the 
reason  of  the  failure  and  the  requirements  for  success. 

Dr.  Taylor  never  lost  an  opportunity  to  inquire 
into  any  interesting  turf,  wherever  it  might  be 
found,  and  several  times  brought  here  samples  of 
particularly  fine  turf  from  other  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, replanted  them  here,  and  watched  their  progress 
and  noted  the  interested  results.  They  were  mostly 
negative,  owing  to  the  severe  climate.  It  was  after- 
wards determined  that  the  fescue,  a  most  desirable 
grass,  was  best  suited  to  a  cool  climate  and  would 
not  thrive  as  some  of  the  other  grasses  in  this  par- 
ticularly hot  and  often  humid  atmosphere.  This 
conclusion  was  accepted  only  after  a  long  series  of 
tests  in  great  variety. 

The  very  fact  that  the  red  fescue  was  a  difficult 
grass  made  it  all  the  more  interesting  to  find  out 
how  to  grow  it  successfully,  hence  the  perseverance. 
Dr.  Taylor's  discussion  of  his  results  and  conclusions 
have  been  published  in  the  Americaji  Golfer.  So  I 
shall  give  only  an  account  of  what  was  done. 

In  1909  forty-two  germinating  experiments  were 
started  to  discover  the  best  way  to  germinate  seeds 
and  to  sustain  the  early  growth  of  the  grass.  In 
planning  the  tests  each  test  had  one  condition  of 
soil  different  from  any  other,  and  records  were  kept  of 
the  entire  soil  construction  and  of  the  progress  of  the 
growth.  By  the  term  ''soil  construction''  is  meant 
the  physical  composition,  the  kinds  and  proportions 
of  materials,  the  thickness  and  depth  of  the  different 
layers,  etc. 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR       9I 

Dr.  Taylor  considered  that  the  ordinary  term 
"soil"  could  mean  anything  from  a  rich  swamp 
muck  to  a  barren  hillside  surface,  and  therefore 
was  not  a  precise  term  in  any  sense.  For  the  same 
reason  it  was  decided  that  no  soil  in  the  ordinary 
sense  could  be  used,  because  it  could  not  be  repro- 
duced readily  at  any  time  or  place,  and  unless  a 
successful  soil  could  be  exactly  reproduced  success- 
ful results  could  not  be  duplicated.  A  full  appre- 
ciation of  these  facts  led  to  the  construction  of  soil 
with  standard  materials  that  were  to  be  obtained 
anywhere  with  fair  assurance  of  uniform  quality, 
making  possible  indefinite  duplication. 

This  consideration  led  to  prolonged  efforts  to  find 
materials  that  would  be  uniform  and  could  be 
easily  obtained  in  indefinite  or  unlimited  quantity. 
Many  of  the  materials  used  in  the  tests  were  found 
only  after  long  and  persistent  hunting,  and  were 
either  not  available  at  first  or  not  known.  Among 
these  were  bar  sand,  Jersey  peat,  cow  manure, 
cracked  bone,  sands  from  New  England,  leaf  mold 
from  the  local  woods,  swamp  muck,  many  sizes  of 
gravel,  and  fine  stone.  Every  material  had  to  be 
tested  to  show  its  physical  characteristics,  much 
in  the  way  sand  is  tested  for  use  in  concrete  or  filtra- 
tion work.  Knowledge  of  the  physical  qualities 
was  used  to  determine  the  amount  and  position  of 
each  material  in  the  solid  composition. 

One  interesting  quality  of  the  different  materials 
was  the  power  of  lifting  water  from  a  free  supply 
at  the  bottom  to  considerable  heights  by  capillary 
attraction.  The  difference  in  height  came  from  a 
difference  in  the  size  and  shape  of  particles  of  the 


.1 


:  : 


I 


:i     i 


92       FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

materials,  mostly  sand,  and  the  proportion  of  the 
different  sizes  in  the  material.  Some  sands  would 
lift  the  water  but  little  more  than  an  inch,  others 
would  lift  over  thirty  inches.  The  high  lifts  took  a 
long  time,  and,  as  might  be  expected,  the  amount 
at  the  top  would  be  rather  small.  This  water-lift- 
ing power  was  investigated  carefully  in  hundreds 
of  ways,  as  it  was  to  be  used  in  experimenting  with  an 
exactly  controlled  supply  of  water  in  an  elaborate 
series  of  tests. 

It  will  now  be  seen  that  all  of  the  four  require- 
ments first  mentioned  are  provided  for.  A  novel 
plan  for  study  of  these  four  requirements  was  car- 
ried out  in  the  fall  of  1909.  It  consisted  of  a  con- 
crete basin  about  fourteen  feet  square  and  sixteen 
inches  deep,  placed  in  one  corner  of  the  putting 
green.  This  was  so  arranged  as  to  bring  the  finished 
work  into  the  regular  surface  of  the  green.  The 
basin  was  built  with  small  reservoirs  to  hold  water 
and  with  drain  outlets  at  different  heights  to  control 
the  depth  of  the  water  in  the  soil.  These  outlets 
were  visible.  One  half  of  the  basin,  separated  from 
the  other  half  by  a  concrete  partition,  was  to  hold 
the  water  at  a  high  level,  and  the  other  half  was  to 
hold  it  at  a  low  level.  At  a  low  place  in  the  surface 
of  each  basin  was  provided  an  inlet  by  which  the 
rain  water  or  sprinkler  water  could  reach  the  reser- 
voirs. In  the  soil  construction  means  were  pro- 
vided for  drainage  of  surplus  water.  In  this  basin, 
although  only  thirteen  by  fourteen  feet,  were  first 
placed  test  constructions  for  over  a  hundred  differ- 
ent experiments. 

As  the  scheme  of  test  construction  has  been  the 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR       93 


same  throughout  the  entire  work,  it  will  be  outlined 
here. 

It  was  considered  that  the  growth  of  the  grass 
from  the  seed  to  full  maturity  might  be  aided  by 
suitable  changes  in  soil  for  different  depths  of  root- 
ing. Therefore  the  soils  were  constructed  in  layers 
of  predetermined  thickness  and  position,  there  being 
from  four  to  perhaps  a  dozen  layers  of  soils  in  a  test. 
Some  of  the  thicknesses  would  be  |  inch,  and  from 
that  to  twelve  inches.  Where  a  series  of  conditions 
were  to  be  tested,  some  of  these  layers  were  laid  in 
strips,  with  an  upper  strip  crossing  a  lower  one, 
on  the  gridiron  plan.  This  simplified  the  construc- 
tion and  helped  to  systematize  the  work.  In  this 
way  one  experiment  would  cover  the  area  of  one 
crossing  of  the  strips,  and  these  areas  were,  of  neces- 
sity, small.  It  was  unexpectedly  interesting  to 
note  that  the  grass  was  very  sensitive  to  the  influence 
of  the  soil,  so  the  lines  of  the  divisions  would  keep 
clearly  marked  where  soil  changed  from  good  to  bad. 
But  in  many  cases  the  quality  of  the  different  soils 
used  varied  so  little  that  the  grass  was  often  of 
uniform  quality  over  several  areas. 

The  materials  used  in  the  soil  construction  for  this 
basin  included  crushed  stone,  gravel,  broken  glass, 
agricultural  lime,  four  different  forms  of  nourish- 
ment, and  seventeen  different  sands.  In  arranging 
these,  nothing  was  taken  for  granted.  Positive 
knowledge  of  the  fineness  or  size  of  soil  particle,  the 
voids,  and  water-lifting  capacity  was  used  in  the 
selection,  and  the  materials,  either  simple  or  mixed, 
were  placed  in  positions  that  seemed  interesting  for 
each  test.    By  this  selection  and  arrangement  were 


94       FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

provided  means  by  which  the  water  could  go  up, 
and  by  which  it  could  go  down,  freedom  for  the 
roots,  places  where  they  could  go  for  moisture,  and 
where  they  could  go  for  nourishment. 

It  was  impossible  to  avoid  the  feeling  that  in 
carrying  out  these  extensive  experiments.  Dr.  Taylor 
had  a  sort  of  unconscious  joy  in  putting  shop  methods 
to  work.  There  was  the  precise  classification  of 
materials,  precisely  measured  proportions,  an  ac- 
curate percentage  of  water  to  be  applied  to  the  dry 
materials.  It  seemed  as  if  he  constantly  kept  in 
mind  a  routing  plan  for  the  roots  and  for  the  water. 
There  were  provisions  for  the  young  roots,  provisions 
for  the  middle-aged  roots,  and  for  the  mature  roots, 
and  doubtless  the  roots  were  more  happy  than  if 
left  to  themselves  and  enjoyed  greater  luxury  than 
grass  ever  had  before. 

And  what  was  the  return  for  all  this  on  the  part 
of  the  grass  t  Much  of  it  failed  to  thrive  through  the 
hot  weather,  while  some  did  fairly  well.  Many  of 
the  failures  were  satisfactory,  because  they  elimi- 
nated certain  combinations.  Dr.  Taylor  often  ex- 
pressed a  wish  that  not  all  tests  should  prove  satis- 
factory—there would  be  so  little  to  learn.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  Dr.  Taylor  derived  much  information, 
a  part  of  which  has  been  published,  and  discovered 
valuable  combinations  and  some  unusual  materials, 
many  of  which  were  brought  in  by  the  carload. 

The  germination  of  the  seeds  was  fairly  startling. 
In  the  early  tests  a  quart  of  seed  would  be  mixed 
with  four  quarts  of  prepared  soil  and  the  mixture 
would  be  spread  over  the  surface  in  a  layer  f  inch 
thick.      This   quantity    of    seed,    if   evenly   spread 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR       95 

without  soil,  would  make  a  layer  about  .17  inch 
thick.  Later  discoveries  led  to  the  mixture  of  one 
quart  of  seed  to  2500  quarts  of  the  prepared  soil, 
so  the  resulting  germination  would  show  about  6 
to  10  spears  of  grass  to  the  square  inch,  and  in  the  case 
of  the  creeping  bent  this  seemed  to  give  the  best 
results.  It  is  estimated  that  there  are  300  million 
creeping  bent  seeds  to  the  cubic  foot  and  about 
11,700,000  to  the  quart,  so  it  can  be  seen  what  a 
vast  number  was  used  in  the  early  work  in  excess  of 
what  was  needed.  The  early  practice  would  take 
about  50  bushels  to  1000  sq.  feet  and  the  latter  would 
use  but  I'o^o  quarts  for  the  same  area,  or  15  quarts 
per  acre.    The  seed  men  do  not  approve  of  the  latter 

method. 

The  different  materials  were  rarely  found  easily 
and  at  low  cost,  and  much  hunting  was  done.  When 
the  desired  material  was  found  it  was  very  likely  to 
be  in  unsuitable  shape  for  use;  then  came  a  hunt 
for  the  machinery  to  bring  it  into  condition.  Dr. 
Taylor  was  much  pleased  at  the  discovery  of  agri- 
cultural machinery  for  this  work,  and  machines  were 
finally  found  that  served  for  mixing,  for  cutting,  for 
grinding,  and  for  shredding,  at  relatively  low  cost. 
Ten  to  twenty  horse  power  gasoline  engines  are 
needed  for  this  work. 

A  somewhat  different  line  of  effort  has  been  inter- 
esting. Dr.  Taylor  learned  of  some  remarkable  sod 
in  Southampton,  Conn.,  and  we  made  an  inspection 
trip  in  April,  191 1.  The  sod  was  so  very  attractive 
that  Dr.  Taylor  purchased  it  as  it  was,  a  special 
strip  containing  nearly  2700  square  feet  of  fine  fescue. 
This  sod  was  cultivated  in  an  unusual  way  by  Mr. 


i. 


96        FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

Olcott,  who  at  one  time  was  editor  of  the  Hart- 
ford Courant,  The  Olcott  method  was  to  expand 
a  sample  sod  to  occupy  about  seven  times  its  or- 
dinary space  by  cutting  it  into  blocks  2  inches 
square  and  planting  these  in  square  holes  of  a  well 
worked  soil  spaced  7  inches  from  center  to  center. 
The  bare  soil  between  was  kept  entirely  clear  of 
weeds,  and  in  two  or  perhaps  three  seasons  a  fine  firm 
turf  covered  the  entire  area.  On  this  experimental 
sod  garden  were  grown  probably  the  finest  specimens 
of  turf  in  the  world,  and  the  specimens  used  came 
from  as  far  as  China  and  Japan.  The  turf  so  ex- 
panded was  expanded  again  in  the  same  way,  with 
a  like  result  of  fine  turf. 

Dr.  Taylor  transported  nearly  fifteen  hundred 
square  feet  of  this  turf  in  two  carloads,  and  placed 
it  on  this  forecourt  and  on  the  sod  garden  here. 
Much  placed  in  the  sod  garden  was  expanded  by 
the  Olcott  method  to  cover  about  seven  times  its 
original  area,  and  the  present  turf  in  the  corners  of 
the  forecourt  was  taken  from  this  cultivation  of  his 
garden.  The  two  carloads  were  brought  from  the 
Olcott  farm  in  191 1,  at  the  end  of  the  dry  season, 
about  the  last  of  August,  and  the  turf  expanded  from 
this  was  planted  in  the  forecourt  in  September  191 3, 
—  a  very  successful  two  years'  expansion. 

A  striking  incident  occurred  in  this  sod  transac- 
tion that  illustrates  well  Dr.  Taylor's  clearness  and 
steadiness  of  mind.  It  was  decided  to  take  up  the 
sod  during  the  latter  part  of  August,  and  when  we 
went  to  inspect  it  during  the  summer,  we  found 
that  it  had  turned  white  and  looked  really  dead  from 
the   very   severe   and   exceptional   drought   of  that 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR       97 

season.  In  spite  of  this  Dr.  Taylor  never  expressed 
the  least  hesitation  or  regret  or  fear  of  the  result, 
and  the  operations  for  the  transportation  continued 
as  though  the  turf  were  in  the  most  flourishing  con- 
dition. Most  people  with  so  expensive  a  project 
on  hand  would  have  hesitated  to  proceed,  tried  to 
reconsider,  or  attempted  some  strenuous  and  perhaps 
useless  remedy.  Not  so  with  Dr.  Taylor.  Somehow 
he  felt  sure  he  was  safe  and  right,  and  the  result 
proved  him  right.  This  faculty  of  knowing  things 
correctly  is  doubtless  one  of  the  secrets  of  his  success 
in  achievement. 


r 


I. 
I  si' 


'BIt} 


LETTER   FROM  WM.  A.    FANNON 

IT  was  on  a  bright  Sunday  morning  in  1884, 
probably  June,  that  I  first  met  Mr.  Frederick  W. 
Taylor,  of  Germantown.  He  was  then  Chief 
Engineer  of  the  Midvale  Steel  Co.  at  Nicetown  and 
he  wished  to  have  Mr.  Charles  W.  Shartle,  now  of 
Middletown,  Ohio,  and  myself  come  into  the  Mid- 
vale  employ  and  assist  in  working  out  his  new  system 
of  management.  If  for  no  other  reason,  his  proposi- 
tion, presented  with  force  and  enthusiasm,  had  us 
mightily  stirred,  so  that  we  talked  of  nothing  else 
on  our  way  home. 

I  had  had  personal  experience  with  piece-work  as 
a  boy.  And  again,  just  prior  to  my  meeting  Mr. 
Taylor,  my  fellow  workmen  and  I  had  had  our  rate 
cut  as  a  reward  for  getting  out  a  large  production  and 
showing  others  how  it  could  be  done.  This  rate- 
cutting  evil  was  general  at  that  time,  however,  and 
was  due  to  setting  the  rate  per  diem  on  insufficient 
data.  So  with  this  well  in  mind  as  a  concrete  illus- 
tration of  the  ill-effect  of  the  old  piece-work  or  per 
diem  system,  Mr.  Taylor's  scientific  method  of 
getting  data  before  establishing  a  rate  per  diem 
appealed  to  us.  Added  to  this  was  his  idea  of  not 
only  one  rate  per  diem,  but  several,  which  might  be 
called   accumulative   rates. ^      His  methods  seemed 

^  [Differential  rates,  Ed.] 


. ,;C-rSr^"'^...        '-.•'...^.  fi...    '■■-A^i:^ 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR  99 

to  US  an  insurance  against  the  employer's  having 
any  reason  for  cutting  rates  and  also  against  the 
employee's  earning  a  compensation  out  of  all  pro- 
portion to  what  the  employer  could  afford  to  pay  or 
inconsistent  with  the  earnings  of  other  men  of  equal 
or  similar  skill  in  the  plant.  And  the  confidence 
that  must  exist  between  men  in  business  transactions 
which  this  careful  rate  setting  engenders  was  also 
reflected  in  Mr.  Taylor's  personality  and  won  us  over 
to  confidence  in  the  practical  working  out  of  his 
proposition. 

So  Mr.  Shartle  and  I  entered  the  employ  of  the 
Midvale  Steel  Co.  on  July  i,  1884.  Mr.  Shartle 
was  given  (at  his  choice)  the  erection  of  new  ma- 
chinery and  repair  work,  commonly  known  as  bench 
work;  and  I,  the  running  of  a  slotting  machine 
which  was,  besides  doing  miscellaneous  work,  cutting 
out  test  bars  for  the  United  States  Government. 
On  this  machine  I  assisted  in  getting  out  data  not 
only  for  making  future  per  diem  rates,  but  also 
facts  from  actual  practice  concerning  cutting  out 
test  bars  from  ordnance  steel.  Mr.  Taylor  seemed 
to  think  that  there  was  a  future  in  selling  ordnance 
to  the  government  and  was  very  desirous  of  getting 
such  notations.  My  work  was  under  a  stop  watch 
which  was  in  constant  possession  of  a  man  known 
in  his  official  capacity  as  an  observer. 

I  continued  with  Midvale  in  this  line  of  work 
until  May  9th,  1887,  or  approximately  three  years. 
Prior  to  my  leaving,  Mr.  Shartle  had  gone  to  his 
home  in  Middletown  and  had  organized  a  company 
of  his  own.  I  followed  and  joined  him  in  the  business 
in  June,  1887. 


ill! 


I 


1 


I 


lOO   FREDERICK  WINSLOW  TAYLOR 

During  this  period  that  I  had  been  with  Midvale, 
I  had  seen  many  interesting  developments  of  Mr. 
Taylor's  system.  Prominent  among  them  was  the 
turning  of  steel  axles  for  railroad  service  on  Pullman 
and  other  cars.  Prior  to  Mr.  Taylor's  starting  his 
system  for  compensation  for  the  turning  of  axles, 
men  were  paid  $1.50  for  ten  hours'  work  and  a  day's 
work  was  considered  approximately  three  axles. 
With  his  system  of  accumulative  compensation  and 
a  rate  based  on  scientific  data,  the  men  were  earning 
about  twice  as  much  as  they  had  earned  before  for 
the  same  number  of  hours  of  work,  and  were  produc- 
ing from  two  to  three  times  as  much.  Approximately 
the  same  results  were  brought  about  in  the  turning 
of  tires  for  locomotives,  Pullman,  and  other  cars. 
The  development  of  splicing  and  of  keeping  proper 
tension  on  leather  belting  was  also  forwarded  to  a 
very  satisfactory  degree. 

After  I  had  been  in  Middletown,  Ohio,  for  some 
years,  my  health  failed  me,  so  that  I  went  to  Colorado. 
I  was  there  about  six  months;  and  while  there  I 
received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Taylor  stating  that  indi- 
cations pointed  to  considerable  expansion  in  the 
Midvale  Steel  Co.  and  if  I  thought  of  coming  back 
East  at  all,  he  would  like  me  to  return  to  that  or- 
ganization. Later,  during  a  visit  to  my  brother  in 
Philadelphia,  I  saw  Mr.  Taylor  and  I  reentered 
their  employ  on  February  11,  1889.  During 
this  latter  period  I  again  saw  that  Mr.  Taylor  was 
progressing  with  his  system  so  much  that  it  increased 
my  confidence  in  him  and  his  efforts  and  I  decided 
to  remain  and  tie  up  with  the  Midvale  Steel  Co.  I 
became  very   much   interested   in   all   the   progress 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 


lOI 


that  was  being  made  in  all  the  departments.     It  was 
about  this  time  that  I  married. 

Among  his  achievements  during  this  second  period 
that  I  was  with  the  Midvale  Steel  Co.  was  the  design 
of  a  new  steam  hammer.     It  was  a  well  known  fact 
up  to  that  time,  that  the  design  of  all  steam  hammers 
had  been  along  certain  similar  lines.     This  design 
was  such  that,  the  hammer  being  in  a  rigid  frame, 
it  would  in  time,  through  the  jar  of  operation,  crack 
and  break  up  the  frame  of  the  hammer  itself.    There 
was  also  the  need  of  a  hammer  capable  of  working 
forgings  of  a  larger  size  than  had  hitherto  been 
attempted.     So,  in  order  to  build  a  more  durable 
hammer,  and  one  which  would  overcome  this  serious 
defect  of  the  rigid  frame,  Mr.  Taylor  designed  one 
which  was  unique  in  its  plan  and  flexibility.     It  was 
similar  to  great  jointed  spider  legs,  and  it  had  a 
stretch  and  recoil  like  a  spiral  spring.     With  the 
piston  and  head,  this  hammer  weighed  twenty-five 
tons;  and,  when  the  steam  was  let  into  the  cylinder 
on  top,  it  struck  a  blow  of  seventy-five  tons.     Al- 
though the  hammer  was  not  established  when  I  left, 
my  information  was   that  it  effected  a  tremendous 
saving  in  repairs  and  was  a  complete  success.    Sub- 
sequently, makers  of  ordnance  substituted  hydraulic 
presses  for  steam  hammers,  but  the  designing  of  this 
hammer  was   a  bold  piece  of  engineering  and  re- 
quired great  courage. 

I  understand  that  Mr.  Taylor  also  designed  some 
special  tools  for  turning  and  machining  large  forg- 
ings which  are  unique  and  successful. 

During  this  latter  period,  the  progress  of  the  Mid- 
vale Steel  Co.  was  such,  especially  in  Mr.  Taylor's 


l< 


.    I 


iHjilt 


I02       FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

department,  that  the  then  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
William  C.  Whitney,  became  interested  in  Mr. 
Taylor's  unique  and  unconventional  progress  and 
asked  Mr.  Taylor  to  come  to  Washigton,  D.C., 
for  a  conference. 

Some  time  prior  to  this  conference,  a  Mr.  Thilmany 
came  over  from  Germany  and  succeeded  in  inter- 
esting Don  M.  Dickinson,  then  Postmaster  in 
Detroit,  in  a  new  process  invented  by  a  German 
chemist.  Professor  Andrew  Mitterlich,  for  the  con- 
version of  wood  by-products  into  fiber  suitable  for  the 
making  of  paper  and  other  products  such  as  shoe 
boxes  and  container  boards.  Mr.  Thilmany  had 
in  mind  principally  the  utilization  of  the  slabs, 
edgings,  sawdust,  and  bark  that  were  being  produced 
in  the  manufacture  of  lumber  from  saw  logs.  And 
indeed  the  accumulation  was  such  that  there  were 
endless  conveyors  carrying  this  waste  material  into 
large  burners,  not  only  without  getting  any  returns 
but  at  a  certain  cost  for  the  maintenance  of  these 
burners. 

Michigan  was  a  great  lumber-producing  state,  and 
Mr.  Dickinson  was  acquainted  with  a  number  of 
lumbermen  who  were  aware  of  this  tremendous 
waste  and  this  process  for  the  conversion  of  it. 
Through  him  they  became  interested  to  such  an 
extent  that  they  paid  Mr.  Thilmany  a  large  sum  of 
money  for  the  patent  rights  for  this  process  in 
America.  Then  they  organized  a  company  known 
as  the  Manufacturing  Investment  Co.  of  New  York, 
having  for  some  of  its  stockholders:  Col.  O.  H. 
Payne  of  New  York,  William  C.  Whitney,  Daniel 
Lamont,  and  Don  M.  Dickinson.     At  the  time  Mr. 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR        IO3 

Taylor  was  asked  to  the  conference  in  Washington, 
they  had  already  started  to  erect  a  plant  in  Madison, 
Maine,  and  in  Appleton,  Wisconsin,  and  Mr.  Whitney 
was  looking  for  a  general  manager.  His  duties  were 
to  be,  —  first  to  look  after  the  welfare  of  these  two 
mills,  and,  after  these  were  properly  organized  and 
running,  to  erect  mills  in  different  parts  of  the  country 
for  the  further  utilization  of  this  waste. 

Mr.  Whitney,  at  the  conference  in  Washington, 
D.C.,  offered  Mr.  Taylor  a  very  much  larger  salary 
than  he  was  getting  at  the  Midvale  Steel  Co.  After 
some  deliberation  and  consultation  with  some  of 
his  relatives  and  friends,  he  decided  to  accept  the 
position  as  general  manager  of  the  Manufacturing 
Investment  Co.  and  signed  a  contract  dated  May  26, 
1890;  and  it  was  specified  that,  from  that  date  until 
October  i,  1890,  he  should  devote  as  much  time  as 
possible  to  the  affairs  of  the  company  and,  from 
October  i,  1890,  until  October  i,  1893,  he  was  to 
devote  the  whole  of  his  time  to  this  work.  He 
remained  with  the  Manufacturing  Investment  Co. 
until  June,  1893,  which  covered  a  period  of  about 
two  and  a  half  years. 

Mr.  Taylor  was  anxious  to  have  some  of  his  old 
time  friends  in  the  organization  and  spoke  to  several 
of  the  employees  of  the  Midvale  Steel  Co.  in  his 
department  about  coming  with  him,  but  did  not 
urge  them.  He  offered  me  the  same  opportunity 
and  I  made  a  trip  to  Alpena,  Michigan,  where  this 
process  was  in  actual  operation  in  the  Fletcher 
Paper  Co.  Mr.  Fletcher  was  a  lumberman  and  had 
started  up  a  paper  mill  to  use  the  sawmill  by- 
products and  turn  them  into  paper.     After  the  visit 


i '.: 


i  I 


11'' 


104  FREDERICK  WINSLOW  TAYLOR 

here,  I  returned  and  discussed  going  with  the  Manu- 
facturing Investment  Co.,  but  Mr.  Taylor  and  I 
did  not  at  first  agree  on  salary.  The  possibilities 
seemed  to  be  unlimited  in  this  new  business  and  1 
learned  from  Mr.  Taylor  that  there  were  many 
young  men  so  eager  to  get  into  this  business  that  they 
were  working  for  a  while  without  any  compensation 
whatever.  This  was  one  of  the  arguments  for  com- 
bating my  ideas  of  what  salary  I  thought  I  should 
have  to  break  up  my  home  and  enter  into  an  entirely 
new  business  in  a  new  country.  My  reply  was 
that  he  might  be  able  to  get  those  young  men  but 
I  was  not  in  that  class  and  I  would  have  to  have  the 
salary  that  I  stated  or  I  did  not  feel  that  I  should  go 
with  him;  but,  if  he  would  pay  me  that  salary,  he 
would  get  the  best  that  was  in  me.  After  a  couple 
of  weeks'  time,  he  decided  to  accept  my  ideas  as  to 
salary  and  I  decided  to  go  with  the  new  company 
and  left  the  Midvale  Steel  Co.  on  the  8th  of  January, 
1 891.  I  remained  with  the  Manufacturing  Invest- 
ment Co.  until  it  was  reorganized  in  1899  and 
changed  hands.  It  is  now  known  as  the  Interlake 
Pulp  &  Paper  Co.  In  the  reorganization,  the 
Madison,  Maine,  mill,  divorced  from  the  Appleton 
Mill,  was  absorbed  by  the  Great  Northern  Paper 
Co.  The  Interlake  continued  to  operate  and  is 
operating  at  this  time  with  the  writer  as  Vice- 
President  and  Manager. 

During  Mr.  Taylor's  incumbency  as  general  man- 
ager, he  established  some  features  of  his  new  system, 
although  this  industry  did  not  afford  the  same  op- 
portunity in  detail  for  the  development  of  the  new 
system  which  other  lines  of  manufacturing  offered. 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR     10$ 

These  features  were  in  vogue  for  many  years,  lasting 
until  changing  conditions  eliminated  them. 

Mr.  Taylor  had  hardly  taken  hold  and  gotten 
the  organization  permanently  started  before  we 
discovered  that  the  enterprise  was  to  be  very  largely 
a  disappointment.  First,  the  price  paid  for  the 
patents  was  a  large  one  in  view  of  the  fact  that  they 
did  not  prove  to  be  as  much  a  controlling  factor 
as  had  been  anticipated.  When  the  company  bought 
these  patents,  they  believed  that  all  other  companies 
wishing  to  cook  wood  in  a  digester  would  have  to 
pay  the  Manufacturing  Investment  Co.  a  royalty 
for  the  use  of  the  lining  to  the  digester,  which  was 
considered  the  last  word  in  the  way  of  digester  linings 
and  the  final  victory  over  the  most  hazardous  part 
of  the  sulphite  business.^  Not  long  afterward  other 
sulphite  mills  were  built  and  operated  by  other 
people  who  were  not  obliged  to  pay  the  Manu- 
facturing Investment  Co.  royalties,  and  a  process 
was  established  and  became  a  commercial  success 
although  the  fiber  was  not  as  good  as  that  made  by 
the  Mitterlich  process.  In  fact  an  amusing  suit 
was  begun  about  twenty  years  later  by  a  Mr.  Russell 
of  New  England  against  the  Manufacturing  Invest- 
ment Co.  for  an  infringement  on  the  New  England 
company's  patents  for  a  lining  of  the  digester.  The 
suit  was,  however,  unsuccessful. 

^  As  a  sample  of  what  this  problem  of  linings  was,  records 
indicate  that  in  1863  Benjamin  Tilgeman,  a  Philadelphia 
chemist,  took  out  letters  patent  for  his  sulphite  process  but 
found  the  problem  of  getting  a  suitable  digester  so  difficult  that 
he  gave  it  up  as  a  bad  job  after  spending  $20,000  in  trying  to 
overcome  this  one  difficulty. 


,  I 


, 


I06      FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

The  next  unfortunate  experience  was  that,  in  the 
Company's  anxiety  to  get  these  mills  started,  they 
did  not  take  sufficient  time  to  select  the  best  loca- 
tions, for  there  were  other  water  powers  that  they 
might  have  secured  which  were  far  better  than  the 
ones  they  did  secure  and  were  equally  well,  if  not 
better,   located   for  the   supply  of  forest   products. 

An  additional  unfortunate  thing  occurred.  In 
their  desire  to  get  these  mills  going,  there  was  a 
competitive  spirit  started  between  Admiral  Good- 
rich and  Admiral  Evans  as  to  who  would  get  his 
mill  first  producing  fiber.  The  Appleton  Mill, 
operated  by  Admiral  Evans,  succeeded  in  making 
the  first  fiber,  which  was  on  March  15,  1891;  but, 
in  the  haste  to  get  these  mills  going,  there  were  some 
unfortunate  mistakes  made  in  the  designing  of  the 
mills  by  the  architect  or  engineers,  some  of  which 
were  beyond  the  control  of  Mr.  Taylor,  as  they  were 
made  before  he  took  charge.  Yet  in  this  same  rush 
Mr.  Taylor  also  made  some  mistakes.  In  fact  all 
seemed  to  act  in  an  impulsive  way  and  to  contribute 
some  to  the  making  of  mistakes,  due  largely  to  their 
anxiety  to  get  started  and  to  inexperience  as  to 
what  was  needed  in  this  new  process.  All  these 
things  helped  to  make  the  proposition  a  disap- 
pointment. 

Then,  on  top  of  all,  they  just  got  started  right 
when  the  panic  of  1893  showed  in  a  most  forcible 
way  that  the  profits  that  had  been  promised  by  the 
original  promoters  and  accepted  as  a  fact  by  the 
organizers  of  the  Manufacturing  Investment  Co. 
were  far  below  what  was  anticipated.  Indeed,  it 
was  difficult  to  make  a  new  dollar  from  an  old  one. 


FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR        IO7 

So  great  was  the  disappointment  to  Mr.  Taylor 
that  I  think  it  affected  his  health.  He  had  gone 
far  enough  into  this  business  to  find  that  it  did  not 
appeal  to  him  and  so  he  rendered  his  last  service 
to  the  company  in  June,  1893,  and  then  went  into  the 
real  beginning  of  the  development  of  scientific 
management  and  that  of  high-speed  steel. 

As  I  look  back  upon  my  experience  with  Mr. 
Taylor  the  two  times  I  was  associated  with  him 
in  the  steel  works  and  later  in  the  Manufacturing 
Investment  Co.,  the  traits  that  stand  out  most 
prominently  to  my  mind  are:  his  true  democracy, 
his  exceeding  cleverness,  his  many-sidedness,  his 
tremendous  loyalty  to  his  friends,  and  his  strong 
purpose  and  convictions.  You  always  felt  that  you 
knew  where  he  stood  on  any  proposition  in  which 
he  was  interested.  Indeed  I  often  thought  he  would 
have  made  more  rapid  progress  if  he  had  been  more 
tactful  and  not  so  willing  to  combat  in  an  intense 
way  anybody  that  saw  fit  to  oppose  him  or  disagree 
with  his  various  ideas.  He  seemed  to  feel  that  **He 
that  is  not  with  me  is  against  me." 

Many  people  did  not  like  him  because  his  ideas 
were  at  least  twenty-five  years  ahead  of  his  time; 
but  the  fact  that  they  could  not  see  his  purpose  and 
ultimate  ends  did  not  make  those  ends  impossible, 
although  they  thought  so. 

Sometimes,  when  Mr.  Shartle  or  I  discussed  a  prop- 
osition with  him,  he  would  act  as  if  we  had  no  right 
to  oppose  him  or  argue  the  matter.  At  the  time  this 
seemed  to  us  rather  harsh,  and  irritated  us;  but  in 
the  light  of  what  has  transpired  in  the  last  twenty- 
five  years,  it  does  not  look  quite  so  bad.     I  think  he 


I08   FREDERICK  WIN  SLOW  TAYLOR 

saw  farther  ahead  than  we  did,  and  it  was  not  egotism 
that  made  him  take  that  apparently  arbitrary  posi- 
tion, but  the  fact  that  he  had  already  gone  over  the 
ground  thoroughly  in  advance  and  had  thought  it 
out  and  come  to  a  conclusion  by  which  he  was  will- 
ing to  stand.  He  did  not  see  any  use  in  wasting 
time  by  going  over  the  same  ground  repeatedly.  A 
problem  once  solved  was  not  to  be  rehearsed  again 
and  again.  We  were  to  accept  the  result  he  had 
worked  out  and  knew  was  right,  and  go  on  from 
where  he  left  off.  1  never  saw  a  man  who  had  a 
greater  courage  of  his  convictions  than  Mr.  Taylor, 
or  one  who  was  more  willing  to  admit  his  mistakes 
and  not  blame  others  for  them. 

Another  thing  which  impressed  us  was  his  love 
for  work,  regardless  of  the  fact  that  he  was  not 
obliged  to,  if  we  properly  understood  his  financial 
condition.  Yet  his  work  was  of  the  most  strenuous 
kind.  He  even  went  into  recreation  in  a  most 
strenuous  way.  His  work,  under  the  new  Taylor 
System,  seemed  to  be  of  the  most  contradictory 
character.  He  was  working  hard  and  quarreling 
with  many  people  to  establish  a  unique  system  the 
aim  of  which  was  to  make  a  permanent  peace  be- 
tween employer  and  employee,  so  that  they  would 
both  get  a  square  deal. 

In  addition  to  the  above  characteristics  one,  which 
impressed  us  by  no  means  the  least,  was  the  purity 
of  his  life. 


i 


RESOLUTION 

ADOPTED  BY  THE  SOCIEIT  TO 

PROMOTE   THE   SCIENCE   OF   MANAGEMENT 
AT   ITS  MEETING    IN    PHILADELPHIA.  PA.. 

OCTOBER    23,    1915 


I 


H 


I08        FREDERICK     WINSLOW     TAYLOR 

saw  farther  ahead  than  we  did,  and  it  was  not  egotism 
that  made  him  take  that  apparently  arbitrary  posi- 
tion, but  the  fact  that  he  had  already  gone  over  the 
ground  thoroughly  in  advance  and  had  thought  it 
out  and  come  to  a  conclusion  by  which  he  was  will- 
ing to  stand.  He  did  not  see  any  use  in  wasting 
time  by  going  over  the  same  ground  repeatedly.  A 
problem  once  solved  was  not  to  be  rehearsed  again  ^ 
and  again.  We  were  to  accept  the  result  he  had 
worked  out  and  knew  was  right,  and  go  on  from 
where  he  left  off.  1  never  saw  a  man  who  had  a 
greater  courage  of  his  convictions  than  Mr.  Taylor, 
or  one  who  was  more  willing  to  admit  his  mistakes 
and  not  blame  others  for  them. 

Another  thing  which  impressed  us  was  his  love 
for  work,  regardless  of  the  fact  that  he  was  not 
obliged  to,  if  we  properly  understood  his  financial 
condition.  Yet  his  work  was  of  the  most  strenuous 
kind.  He  even  went  into  recreation  in  a  most 
strenuous  way.  His  work,  under  the  new  Taylor 
System,  seemed  to  be  of  the  most  contradictory 
character.  He  was  working  hard  and  quarreling 
with  many  people  to  establish  a  unique  system  the 
aim  of  which  was  to  make  a  permanent  peace  be- 
tween employer  and  employee,  so  that  they  would 
both  get  a  square  deal. 

In  addition  to  the  above  characteristics  one,  which 
impressed  us  by  no  means  the  least,  was  the  purity 
of  his  life. 


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RESOLUTION 

ADOPTED  BY  THE  SOCIETY  TO 

PROMOTE  THE   SCIENCE  OF   MANAGEMENT 

AT  ITS  MEETING  IN   PHILADELPHIA,  PA., 

OCTOBER    23,    1915 


ga  wiinaaii-ini   »»>^- 


hi 


Whereas,  the  Society  to  Promote  the  Science  of 
Management,  in  pursuance  of  its  plan  to  observe  a 
fitting  memorial  to  the  life  and  work  of  its  distin- 
guished leader,  the  late  Frederick  Winslow  Taylor, 
has  been  favored  with  the  gracious  hospitality  of  his 
devoted  helpmate  and  companion  Mrs.  Louisa 
Marie  Spooner  Taylor;  and 

Whereas,  the  cooperation  of  Mrs.  Taylor  in  this 
memorial  has  been  an  important  and  essential  con- 
tribution to  its  proper  observance;  be  it 

Resolved,  that  the  Society  to  Promote  the  Science 
of  Management  hereby  expresses  its  hearty  appre- 
ciation of  the  part  taken  by  Mrs.  Taylor  in  our 
joint  rendering  of  due  honor  to  the  memory  of  her 
revered  husband;  and  be  it 

Resolved,  that  this  Society  hereby  records  its  con- 
fident hope  that  the  adherance  to  Mr.  Taylor's 
ideals  and  the  helpfulness  in  their  realization  mani- 
fested by  Mrs.  Taylor  during  his  lifetime,  through 
the  dark  hours  of  its  close,  and  to  the  present  dedi- 
cation of  this  Society  to  a  continuation  of  that 
work,  will  continue  with  unabated  interest  and  en- 
thusiasm, and  further  be  it 

Resolved,  that  these  resolutions  be  spread  upon 
the  permanent  records  of  this  Society,  and  that  a 
copy  hereof  be  duly  engrossed  and  presented  to 
Mrs.  Taylor. 


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BENEDICTION 

PRONOUNCED   BY  THE  REVEREND  LANGDON 

C.  STEWARDSON  AT   MR.  TAYLOR'S   GRAVE, 

WEST   LAUREL  HILL  CEMETERY, 

PHILADELPHIA,  PA., 

OCTOBER,  23,  191 5 


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mz  ate  0atl)eteD  Dete  in  ttie  pteisence  of  (Son 
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ttiat  toe  map  temembet  tbe  DeaD  anD  cattp  atoap 
toitt)  ud  an  insipttation  fot  tU  IMm,  CDe  spirit 
of  out  ftienD  i0  upon  us  noto :  tie  spirit  of  feat=> 
less  tesearcl)  ano  taQical  tefotm  anQ  iotie  of 
tiumanttinD. 

^e  litieD  tdat  U  mi0l)t  bteak  unttoDDen  patlis 
of  ttutb  ano  labot.  l^e  could  not  sit  content  amio 
t|)e  cttots  of  inuusttial  faitb  ot  tfte  sins  of  its 
estaHlisteO  practice,  ^e  sougtit  a  ptinciple  toDict) 
sboulD  point  eact)  tnotber  to  tiis  appropriate  task 
anO  giiae  t)tm  opportunity  to  dappilp  fulfil  it.  pt 
mane  incessant  toar  on  taiaste,  unfitness,  income 
petence,  iniustice.  IDis  effort  toas,  6p  reaDiust» 
ment  in  tlje  cftaos  of  life's  lumDleD  parts,  to  set 
tftings  rigftt :  to  firing  eact)  man  to  bis  oton :  anO 
so  actietie  efficient  toil  anD  social  toelfare.  ^e 
kneto  tDat  to  be  unproDuctitie  toas  to  DefrauD  tt)e 
community  anD  to  beggar  tfte  inDitiiDual.  ^ence 
t)is  lifelong  purpose  bias  to  sane  men's  souls,  to 
bring  tljem  into  possession  of  tftemselties  anD 
t|)us  assist  ttem,  eacb  in  bis  oton  place  anD 
accorDing  to  tbe  bonest  measure  of  bis  ability,  to 
seme  tbeir  fellotos  anD  to  glorifp  tbcir  ©oD. 

Co  bonor  bis  memorp  is  to  continue  bis  toorb. 
Co  retierence  bis  spirit  is  to  spreaD  it  abroaD. 
Co  make  tbis  ceremonp  anD  occasion  fruitful  is 
to  leatie  tbis  grounD  to^Dap  in  tbe  bigb  tesoltie 
tbat  toe  too  toill  unDertabe  to  satie  men's  souls, 
to  bring  tbem  into  possession  of  tbemselPes  anD 
tbus  assist  tbem,  eacb  in  bis  oton  place  anD 
accorDing  to  tbe  bonest  measure  of  bis  abilitp,  to 
settle  tbeir  fellotos  anD  to  glorify  tbeir  (5oD. 

^pon  tbis  mission  map  OBoD's  blessing  rest. 

amen. 


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